Chime Communications / Caucus costs and contract

Our Ref: 126876

Dear Mr Batsworth

I refer to your request of 26 October for:

"Details of all expenditure on services provided by Chime
Communications/Caucus since 2006. Any anticipated future costs as part of
any ongoing contracts should be included. Please ensure that expenditure
related to the 'East London Digital Community' is included (as described
on the web page [1]http://www.caucusworld.com/clients/ ). I am also
requesting a copy of the agreed contract for this service."

I am dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
('the Act'). The Act gives you the right to know whether we hold the
information specified in your request and, if that is the case, to have
that information communicated to you, subject to the provisions of the
Act.

We do hold information that falls within the scope of your request.
However, the Department considers some of the information may be exempt
from disclosure under Section 43 (commercial interests) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

Under the Act, we need to consider whether the balance of the public
interest lies in our providing you with the information or in maintaining
the exemption and withholding the information.

By virtue of section 10(3), where public authorities have to consider the
balance of the public interest in relation to a request, they do not have
to comply with the request until such time as is reasonable in the
circumstances. The DCMS has not yet reached a decision on the balance of
interest. Due to the need to consider, in all the circumstances of the
case, where the balance of the public interest lies in relation to the
information that you have requested, the Department will not be able to
respond to your request in full within 20 working days. I hope to let you
have a response by 21 December 2009.

If you need any help or advice or have any questions about this, please
contact me quoting the reference number in any communications.

Yours sincerely,

Gemma Hersh
Freedom of Information Team
Public Engagement and Recognition Unit
Tel: 0207 211 6308

Complaints Procedure

If you are unhappy with the way DCMS has handled your request you are
entitled to ask for an internal review of its handling within two calendar
months of the date of this letter. If you wish to make a complaint you
should contact:

FOI Complaints
Public Engagement and Recognition Unit
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London, SW1Y 5DH

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.

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Dear Mr Batsworth

Our Ref: 126876

I refer to your request of 26 October for:

"Details of all expenditure on services provided by Chime
Communications/Caucus since 2006. Any anticipated future costs as part of
any ongoing contracts should be included. Please ensure that expenditure
related to the 'East London Digital Community' is included (as described
on the web page [1]http://www.caucusworld.com/clients/ ). I am also
requesting a copy of the agreed contract for this service."

I am dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
('the Act'). The Act gives you the right to know whether we hold the
information specified in your request and, if that is the case, to have
that information communicated to you, subject to the provisions of the
Act.

Further to my email of 23 November, I can confirm that the Department
considers some of the information you have requested exempt from
disclosure under Section 43 (2) (commercial interests) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. This exemption allows public bodies to withhold
information if the release of that information would or would be likely to
prejudice commercial interests. In this particular case, the exempt
information is financial information included in the contracts in
question. Disclosure of the exempt information would or would be likely
to prejudice negotiations relating to other contracts.

The exemption in section 43 of the Act is a qualified exemption.
Accordingly, in dealing with your request we considered whether the public
interest in upholding the exemption and withholding the redacted
information outweighs that in disclosing it.

In favour of disclosure, we considered the public interest in transparency
about, and proper scrutiny of, the expenditure of public money. Both
transparency and scrutiny help ensure that public money is used
effectively. We also considered the importance of demonstrating that
value for public money is obtained and that public contract processes are
conducted in a fair, open and honest way.

Against those public interest factors, we balanced those that favour
upholding the exemption in section 43(2) and continuing to withhold the
redacted information. In particular, we considered the public interest in
maintaining the exemption where disclosure of information would or would
be likely to prejudice the ability to obtain the best possible value for
public money by undermining contractual negotiations relating to publicly
financed projects. The information includes various details that would
give commercial rivals inside information on the methods used by Opinion
Leader, and includes case studies used by Opinion Leader in the course of
their work. Some of the information show detailed pricing structures and
would help rivals calculate Opinion Leader's profit margins. Future
negotiations about various contracts would or would be likely to be
prejudiced if information in the document were to be prematurely disclosed
as other organisations would be likely to be discouraged from doing
business with us. Disclosure would therefore reduce our ability to get a
good deal for taxpayers in the future and would therefore result in the
less effective use of public money.

After careful consideration of the competing interests, we concluded that
the public interest in favour of maintaining the exemption in section
43(2) of the Act continues to outweigh that in favour of disclosure.
Accordingly, we must continue to withhold the information redacted from
the contract.

You may wish to access the attached link for further guidance on the
exemption in section 43 of the Act:
[2]http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/docs/...

I would be grateful if you could send me your full address, so that I can
send you a hard copy of the Contract and tender proposal for the East
London Digital Community, with the exempt information redacted.

If you need any help or advice or have any questions about this, please
contact me quoting the reference number in any communications.

Yours sincerely,

Gemma Hersh
Freedom of Information Team
Public Engagement and Recognition Unit
Tel: 0207 211 6308

Complaints Procedure

If you are unhappy with the way DCMS has handled your request you are
entitled to ask for an internal review of its handling within two calendar
months of the date of this letter. If you wish to make a complaint you
should contact:

FOI Complaints
Public Engagement and Recognition Unit
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London, SW1Y 5DH

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.

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Mr Batsworth

Please find attached the two documents relating to this request, which have been redacted accordingly.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Hersh

Gemma Hersh
Department for Culture, Media and Sport

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