Contract for outsourcing of services with Liberata Limited

Dear Local Government Association,

I would like to request the following information:

1) The contract (including all indexes, appendices and supplements)
between the Local Government Association and Liberata Limited in
relation to the outsourcing of Human Resources, Payroll, Finance,
Accounting, IT, Facilities Management and Customer Services that
took place in 2008 - as detailed in this article
http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2...

2) A copy of all the bids to tender for the above outsourcing
contract.

3) A table detailing all the revenue the Local Government
Association has received from Liberata Limited from the sponsorship
of its events including but not limited to the Annual Conference
and Exhibition, broken down into annual revenue for the years
covering 2005 to 2010.

I would like this information to be received electronically. If one
part of this request can be answered sooner than others please send
that information first followed by any subsequent data. If you need
further clarification please contact me via the whatdotheyknow.com
website.

It is my understanding that many public authorities release their
contracts with private vendors in line with the Freedom of
Information Act. The exemption for commercial interest under the
act (section 43) is a qualified exemption, which means that
information can only be withheld if it is in the public's interest.
The public have an interest in knowing the terms of the contracts
awarded by public authorities, whether or not public money changes
hands immediately.

If you are relying on section 41 (the exemption for legal breach of
confidence) then I would like to know the following:
1. When the confidentiality agreements were made
2. All correspondence and email in which these confidentiality
agreements were discussed.
3. The precise wording of the confidentiality agreements.

I ask these questions because guidance issued by the Lord
Chancellor and the office of government commerce specifically state
that public authorities should not enter into these types of
agreements; they go against the spirit of the laws of disclosure. I
would also point to the Information Commissioner's guidance on
accepting blanket commercial confidentiality agreements: 'Unless
confidentiality clauses are necessary or reasonable, there is a
real risk that, in the event of a complaint, the commissioner would
order disclosure in any case.'

Finally, within the law of confidence there is also a public
interest test. Therefore, the contracts should be disclosed in
full, if any parts are redacted they must be for information that
can be proven to be a legal breach of confidence in court, and only
where secrecy can be shown to be in the public interest. These are
difficult positions to argue when public money is at stake or a
where a public authority is offering a private company a monopoly
to charge its stakeholders.

Yours faithfully,

Daniel Thwaites

Dear Local Government Association,

Can you please explain why you have not responded to my request
within the 20 working day limit as your acknowledgement indicated
and when you expect to be able to provide this information?

Yours faithfully,

Daniel Thwaites

Dear Local Government Association,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Local Government
Association's handling of my FOI request 'Contract for outsourcing
of services with Liberata Limited'.

I have not received any response from the organisation other than
an acknowledgement of my request.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...

Yours faithfully,

Daniel Thwaites