Dear Sir or Madam,

According to an old press release on-line,[1] Liverpool City
Council selected BT for its IT joint venture on 15 May 2000, and
signed a 10 year deal with its Syncordia Solutions unit, which was
to be officially launched on 2 April 2001.

On the other hand, the Liverpool City Statement of Accounts 2007/8
says: "In July 2001 the City Council entered into an arrangement
for the provision of call centre services, ICT, local tax
collection, human resources and payroll services for the City
Council. A subsidiary company of BT was created to undertake the
work."

I have done my best to isolate the originating document
specifically.

May I have a copy of the contract(s) signed between Liverpool City
Council and BT in 2001 relating to the establishment and duties of
Liverpool Direct Limited please?

Yours faithfully,

Julian Todd

[1]
http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/new...

Thank you for your e-mail.

This e-mail confirms we have received your enquiry.

We will endeavour to respond to this enquiry within 24 hours, but please
note that during

busy periods it may take up to 3 working days to reply to you.

In the mean time, you will be able to find the answers to commonly asked
questions on our
website: www.liverpool.gov.uk .

Please do not respond to this e-mail as it has been generated
automatically.

Liverpool Direct
Winner - 'Best in Public Sector', Call Centre

Association Excellence Awards 2004 Liverpool,

European Capital of Culture 2008

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Dear Julian Todd,

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

We have forwarded your request to the relevant department, and they will
answer your query as soon as possible.

Please contact us if you have any further queries we may assist with.

Yours sincerely

Liverpool Direct

[email address]

www.liverpool.gov.uk

Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008

Would you prefer to receive your council tax bill via e-mail? Go to
www.liverpool.gov.uk and complete the easy online registration form.

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Dear Liverpool Direct,

My Freedom of Information request for the contracts signed between
Liverpool City Council and BT in 2001 relating to the establishment
and duties of Liverpool Direct Limited became overdue for response
on 8 August.

I am not alleging that this specific request has become held up in
the communications channels because it happens to route through
Liverpool Direct offices itself, since there are other FOI requests
that haven't received a reply.

Do you have any information as to when this request will be seen
to?

Yours sincerely,

Julian Todd.

Thank you for your e-mail.

This e-mail confirms we have received your enquiry.

We will endeavour to respond to this enquiry within 24 hours, but please
note that during

busy periods it may take up to 3 working days to reply to you.

In the mean time, you will be able to find the answers to commonly asked
questions on our
website: www.liverpool.gov.uk .

Please do not respond to this e-mail as it has been generated
automatically.

Liverpool Direct
Winner - 'Best in Public Sector', Call Centre

Association Excellence Awards 2004 Liverpool,

European Capital of Culture 2008

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Dear J Todd,

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

We have forwarded your request to the relevant department, and they will
answer your query as soon as possible.

Please contact us if you have any further queries we may assist with.

Yours sincerely

Liverpool Direct

[email address]

www.liverpool.gov.uk <http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/>

Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008

Would you prefer to receive your council tax bill via e-mail? Go to
www.liverpool.gov.uk <http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/> and complete the
easy online registration form.

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Dear Liverpool Direct,

Six months ago on 9 July 2008 I sent a Freedom of Information
request for a copy of all the contracts signed between Liverpool
City Council and BT, which was announced on 15 May 2000 and
officially launched on 2 April 2001 as Liverpool Direct.

This response is now 5 months overdue. In spite of a reminder sent
by me on 20 August 2008, I have received nothing beyond an
auto-generated response from the Liverpool Direct email server.

I shall be sending this case to the Information Commissioner in the
next few days unless I receive some real assurances that it has
been noticed and is being looked into.

Yours sincerely,

Julian Todd

Thank you for your e-mail.

This e-mail confirms we have received your enquiry.

We will endeavour to respond to this enquiry within 24 hours, but please
note that during

busy periods it may take up to 3 working days to reply to you.

In the mean time, you will be able to find the answers to commonly asked
questions on our
website: www.liverpool.gov.uk .

Please do not respond to this e-mail as it has been generated
automatically.

Liverpool Direct
Winner - 'Best in Public Sector', Call Centre

Association Excellence Awards 2004 Liverpool,

European Capital of Culture 2008

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Dear Julian Todd,

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

We have forwarded your request again to the relevant department, and we
have marked the email as high importance in order that they will answer
your query as soon as possible.

Please contact us if you have any further queries we may assist with.

Yours sincerely

Liverpool Direct

[email address]

www.liverpool.gov.uk

Would you prefer to receive your council tax bill via e-mail? Go to
www.liverpool.gov.uk and complete the easy online registration form.

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Dear Mr. Todd,

I apologise for the delay in responding to your request. Please expect
a response from us shortly regarding the case.

Regards,

Jawahier Sharif Ali (Fatima)

Information Officer

Legal Service

Liverpool City Council

Municipal Buildings

Dale Street,

Liverpool

L2 2DH

Tel: 0151 225 3132

email: [email address]

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Dear Andrea Glanville,

I look forward to a response in the week commencing 16 February
2009 regarding a copy of the contract signed between Liverpool and
BT that was announced on 15 May 2000.

I understand that, due to the age of the contract and the timing of
the Freedom of Information Act 2000 legislation, that it may lack
clauses relating to how to handle FOI requests which appear in many
more recent contracts and make the job easier.

Please respond to the above email address if you can so that the
responses get filed correctly in the public database.

Yours sincerely,

Julian Todd

Dear Mr Todd,

I refer to the request you made under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 in which you asked for a copy of the signed contract between
Liverpool and BT for the joint venture known as Liverpool Direct Ltd.

I apologise for the delay in replying to you, however the nature of this
request has been extremely complex and is currently being considered for
release, we are also considering any exemptions that may apply to
restrict the release of some or all of the data.

We are hoping that we will be able to provide a response week commencing
16 February 2009, once again apologies for the delay.

Regards

Andrea Glanville

Legal Services

Liverpool City Council

Municipal Buildings

Dale Street

Liverpool

L2 2DH

Telephone 0151 225 2709

Fax: 0151 225 2392

email: [email address]

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Dear Mr Todd

Although I hoped to be in a position to provide some (or all) of the
documentation that you had requested, this is not going to be achieved
this week. I can assure you this is a priority request as we have in
fact a number of similar requests for contracts of this nature.

I will keep you informed of progress.

Once again thanks for your continued patience.

Andrea Glanville

Legal Services

Liverpool City Council

Municipal Buildings

Dale Street

Liverpool

L2 2DH

Telephone 0151 225 2709

Fax: 0151 225 2392

email: [email address]

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<<Todd LDL 190509.doc>>

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[Subject only] Enclosures

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Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for the redacted copy of the Liverpool Direct Limited
contracts which you sent to me on 20 May 2009 accompanied by a
letter explaining that the list of reasons for the redactions was
also being withheld from me.

Please consider this as letter of complaint about all the
redactions, especially as I was not provided the reasons for them.

I am raising my complaint late, because I was waiting for the
decision notice of 27 May 2009 to become available on-line in a
form you can access it.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/d...

This concerned contracts I had requested from Bristol City Council,
that were refused on much the same grounds, which the Information
Commissioner decided were invalid. Of especial importance was the
claim that the contract was unique, because this actually counted
against the claim that it was commercially sensitive.

My interpretations of the broader reasons laid out in the letter of
refusal are as follows:

1. There are special advantageous terms in the contract with BT
which a competitor would not know of to offer.

2. The Council would be disadvantaged in future negotiations with a
competitor who knew what terms had been conceded to BT.

3. Other competitors would gain an "unfair advantage" by knowing
what terms had been successful for BT, as they would no longer
experience the disadvantage of lacking this information.

4. Some of the terms, such as pricing information, may not be
relevant, given the age and length of the contract.

5. By promising to keep the deal secret, the Council is able to
obtain more favourable terms from a contractor than if the facts
were disclosed.

6. The Council would be subject to breach of confidence proceedings
if they disclosed the contents of their contract.

Points 1, 2 and 3 clearly point towards a public interest in
disclosure because it would enable companies to compete on an equal
footing, without BT retaining its unfair advantage of having sole
access to the information.

Point 4 doesn't explain why every quantitative number has been
redacted from my copy of the contract.

Point 5 assumes that the Council obtained favourable terms in this
contract in the first place -- a matter of considerable doubt due
to various agency investigations that have been reported in the
press, and the fact that secrecy usually covers up over-pricing
rather than under-pricing.

Point 6 has been clarified by Derry City Council v Information
Commissioner (EA/2006/0014; 11 December 2006) where the Tribunal
stated that "the correct position is that a concluded contract
between a public authority and a third party does not fall within
section 41(1)(a) of the Act".

I can also add the strong circumstantial evidence that I suspect
that no commercial competitor has sought a copy of this contract
from LCC under the FOI Act in the last 4 years it has been in force
in the hope of obtaining information that is useful to them --
because it isn't commercially beneficial.

As my original request went out on 9 July 2008, and it appears that
the material for the internal review has already been produced, I
anticipate a response to this complaint to be within the time
limit, following a review of the material I have outlined above.

Yours sincerely,

Julian Todd

Enquiries to: Wendy Twigge

Your Ref:

Our Ref: FOI/WT/CW/32037

Mr. Todd

Email: [FOI #1090 email]

Date: 23 June 2009

Dear Mr. Todd,

RE: Freedom of Information Request 32037

I write to you to acknowledge your request for a review under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your request was received in our
offices on 22 June 2009 and is being processed in accordance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your request can be summarised as follows:

1. An internal review of the information provided for case reference
32037 regarding the Liverpool Direct contract.

If the above summary is incorrect or you wish to change any details, let
me know at the earliest opportunity.

I trust this information satisfies your enquiry,

Yours sincerely

W Twigge (pp)

Information Manager

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