Contract with Find My Past Limited

Dear Mr Blacker,

Thank you for your enquiry on 15 January 2009 regarding the contract for the 1911 Census.

Under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000, and the Environmental Information Regulations, 2004, you have the right to:
• know whether we hold the information you require
• be provided with that information

You specifically asked the following questions which I will respond to in order:

1)You asked for information about Find My Past Limited:

Find My Past Limited, a commercial company, is part of the brightsolid group, (formerly Scotland Online). The National Archives awarded the 1911 digitization contract to Scotland Online, who subsequently acquired Find My Past Limited, and have branded the 1911 online service under this company name. Company information, including registration details, is available on the 1911 census website in the About Us section (linked from the bottom of every page of the site): http://www.1911census.co.uk/Content/defa.... Company accounts are filed with Companies House and available for public inspection in the usual ways. The National Archives website provides information about and links to our commercial partners at the following page: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/conta...

2) Availability of the 1911 census images and transcribed, searchable data on other websites:

The initial digitisation contract was awarded to the successful bidder (Scotland Online, now Brightsolid) through the Competitive Dialogue procedure. However, all National Archives digitisation licenses are non-exclusive, and once the raw document images are deposited with The National Archives they will be available for re-sale to other genealogy publishers.

3)You ask for information on the OJEU procurement process:

The OJEU Competitive Dialogue procedure was used to tender for digitisation of the 1911 census. The Contract Notice is attached in response to your request. The 1911 Census is a public private partnership agreement, rather than a service contract, and therefore has no monetary cost to The National Archives. Under the agreement, the Contractor takes on all the costs and risk of scanning and transcribing the census data, in return for the right to provide a paid access service for information and document images.

See attached document.

4) You requested information from the contract between The National Archives and Scotland Online concerning the approved price levels and agreed maxima at launch.

This price table forms Schedule 2.4 clause 2.5.1 of the contract, agreed in advance of launch between the parties:
At launch of the Online Access Service the Pay-Per-View fees for various chargeable transactions inclusive of Value Added Tax shall not exceed:

Credits Validity period (days) Cost Cost/unit Cost/ transcription Cost/ images
60 90 £6.95 £0.12 £1.20 £3.48
280 365 £24.95 £0.09 £0.90 £2.67
600 365 £49.95 £0.08 £0.80 £2.50

Instructions, Front Covers, Declarations and descriptive pages shall be free to view.

5) You finally ask for "A record of what personal information (for example, email addresses) has been transferred from the National Archives to Find My Past Ltd for its use in satisfying the contract, and under what privacy terms.”
All of the data on the 1911 Census dates from 1911. The census does not therefore contain email addresses. The Census provides names, addresses, occupations and date of birth for those living in 1911. The release of this data is in accordance with the decision notice issued by the Information Commissioner
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/d...

If however by your question you were meaning what personal data regarding potential customers was transferred from The National Archives to Find My Past the answer is that no personal data of potential customers was transferred.

If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our response to your request for information please send full details within two calendar months of the date of this letter to:

The Quality Manager
Public Services Development Unit
The National Archives
Kew, Richmond
Surrey TW9 4DU

You have the right to ask the Information Commissioner (ICO) to investigate any aspect of your complaint. Please note that the ICO is likely to expect internal complaints procedures to have been exhausted before beginning his investigation.

If there is anything else we can help with regarding this request please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yudit Collard Treml

Freedom of Information Centre
Information Policy and Services Directorate
The National Archives
Kew
Richmond
Surrey TW9 4DU
0208 876 3444 ext 2552

Fax +44 (0)20 8487 1976
Websites: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

If you would like to contact us again regarding
this request, please contact the helpdesk:

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