Dear Sir or Madam,

Please send me a copy of the contract Liverpool City Council signed
with Veolia for refuse and recycling collection.

Thanks for your help!

Francis

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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 Francis,

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

I have forwarded your enquiry to our Environmental Services Department
who will respond to you directly.

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 email? Go to
www.liverpool.gov.uk and complete the easy online registration form.

show quoted sections

Dear Liverpool Direct,

Hi - I sent this request to you on 20th December, and haven't
received a reply yet.

Could you track down why I haven't?

Thanks!

Francis

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

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Irving,

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

I have re-forwarded your enquiry for a response from the environmental
services department 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 email? Go to
www.liverpool.gov.uk and complete the easy online registration form.

show quoted sections

Dear Liverpool Direct,

Hi, I still don't have a response to this request which I made back
in December.

You have already forwarded my request to the environmental services
department twice, and I still have no response from them.

Could you trace what has happened?

See
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/re...
for the full correspondence.

Yours sincerely,

Francis

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

show quoted sections

Dear Francis Irving,

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.

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Irving

FOI REQUEST NO: 29133

RE: Refuse and recycling collection contract

Many thanks for your recent communication requesting information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000, dated 22nd May.

I understand that you have sent this request in previously to Liverpool
Direct Limited, unfortunately it should have been forwarded to Wendy Twigge
Information Manager by Liverpool Direct Limited who deals with all
information requests. Miss Twigge has not received this request until 22
May, 2008 and apologies for this delay.

Your request will now be processed and as soon as we have the appropriate
information Miss Twigge will respond to you.

I should be grateful if you would quote the above FOI Request No in all
future communications.

Many thanks

Yours sincerely

Wendy Twigge
Information Manager

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Hi Wendy,

I made a Freedom of Information request to you on 17th December
2007, and have still not received a reply.

I have repeatedly reminded you to reply. You can see the full
record of correspondence here:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/re...

You are now clearly breaching the Freedom of Information Act
section 10 (1). I am writing to ask you to comply now, by sending
me a copy of the contract Liverpool City Council signed with Veolia
for refuse and recycling collection.

If you do not immediately answer my request following this email,
please consider it instead a request for an internal review, and
send this to the person within Liverpool City Council who handles
FOI reviews.

I would also like to point out that under the Audit Commission Act
1998 s15 (1)(a) the contract with Veolia is open for inspection at
certain times of year by the public. Because of this, the contract
cannot be commercially confidential, as it is clearly not
confidential.

If you refuse this request on the grounds of commercial
confidentiality, then I shall be complaining to the Information
Commissioner.

Your easiest course of action, to save you and the people in your
council a lot of hassle, and to not waste my time and taxpayers
money, is simply to attach the contract and send it to me.

I look forward to your prompt response.

Francis Irving

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

show quoted sections

Dear Francis Irving,

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.

show quoted sections

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am requesting an internal review of the following Freedom of
Information request.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/re...

I originally sent it on 20 December 2007, and have received no
reply, just automated acknowledgements.

Yours sincerely,

Francis

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

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Francis Irving,

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.

show quoted sections

Dear Mr. Irving

I am writing to confirm that I have now obtained a copy of the contract
that you require.

However, due to the size of the document it cannot be sent in electronic
format as it is in excess of 10Mb and will be stopped from being sent
due to restrictions on the Councils e-mail servers.

If you would let me have a forwarding address I would be happy to send a
copy of the report to you.

Kind regards

Rob Woods

Rob Woods
Finance & Legal Services Directorate
Legal Services
Room 221
Municipal Buildings
Dale Street
Liverpool L2 2DH

Tel: 0151 225 6712
Fax: 0151 225 2392
e-mail: [email address]

Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail. Thank you

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Dear Mr Irving

Please find attached Part A & Part B of the Veoila Contract. Part C is
currently being considered as part may be exempt for public release, I
will endeavour to get this information to you as soon as possible.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in issuing this information to
you and do appreciate your continued patience with the organisation.

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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Our ref: WT/ FOI & EIR 29133

Dear Mr Irving

Re: Your Freedom of Information Act 2000/ Environmental Information
Regulations 2004 request.

I refer to your Freedom of Information Act request referred to in your
Web link:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/re...

I apologise on behalf of the Council for the delay in responding.

In fact as the contract relates to environmental information, it must be
treated as a request for information under the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004 (EIR) and not the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOI).

You have previously been provided with Parts A & B of the contract.
Please find attached the final Part C previously referred.

As will be noted, information considered to be prejudicial to commercial
interests has been redacted. The Council has only sought to specifically
redact out the prices quoted by the contractor. Accordingly, that
portion of the information has been withheld under the following EIR
exceptions:

Regulations 12(5)(e) & (f) -. Under Reg 12(5)(e), information can be
withheld if disclosure would adversely affect the confidentiality of
commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is
provided by law to protect a legitimate economic interest. Reg 12(5)(f)
applies where disclosure would adversely affect the interests of the
supplier of the information.

I shall deal with these 2 exceptions collectively as they are
interrelated.

The prices provided to the Council were submitted as part of the
tendering process for the contract. Accordingly an implicit duty of
confidence exists in common law, as there would have been a reasonable
expectation on the part of bidders that pricing information submitted as
part of a bid would be held in confidence for the purposes of
assessment. Further, the participation in the tendering process gives
rise to the information being supplied under confidential circumstances.

The pricing information quoted is of legitimate economic interest to the
tendering company, in that if released, it would be of value to a
competitor thereby compromising the bidder's competitive edge.

It follows from the above that releasing the pricing information would
adversely affect the interests of the supplier of the information under
Reg 12(5)(f).

In weighing up the public interest, the Council accepts that there is a
legitimate public interest in knowing what pricing data inform Council
decisions relating to the expenditure of public funds. However I have
weighed this against, what I consider to be the greater public interest
in the Council being able to consider contracts in an environment
whereby bidders can compete on a level playing field. I would suggest
that it is in the greater public interest in ensuring that the tendering
process has integrity and is executed in a fair basis of merit and not
tactical advantage gained. The Council would have no control over the
information were it to be released into the public domain.

Please note that the Council rejects your assertion that the above
exceptions (in the context of EIR) cannot be applied as the contracts
are available for public inspection under Section 15(1)(a) of the Audit
Commission Act 1998 (ACA). Inspection of documents under ACA concerns
itself with limited rights of access to "interested persons", only when
an audit takes place, and only to those documents relating to the audit.
This may or may not specifically include this contract requested.

I compare this to EIR and FOI which provides for a right to access all
of the time. An equivalent in FOI would be that the information is
reasonably accessible to the public under s21. The circumstances
permitting access under ACA are more constrained than under FOI,
otherwise, had this been an FOI request, the Council would have been
entitled to rely upon the Section 21 exemption i.e that the information
is reasonably accessible by other means.

Accordingly the Council is entitled to consider this request under the
appropriate legislation applicable, i.e. under EIR, and not under other
legislation that may or may not necessarily facilitate disclosure.

However, the Council is quite content for you to test this out, by way
of challenge to the ICO, with whom we have consulted before forming this
view.

As some information has been withheld, please treat this communication
as a refusal notice under EIR Reg 14. I am also obliged to inform you of
your rights to make further representation under EIR Reg 11, which I set
out below:

"11. - (1) Subject to paragraph (2), an applicant may make
representations to a

public authority in relation to the applicant's request for
environmental information if

it appears to the applicant that the authority has failed to comply with
a requirement

of these Regulations in relation to the request.

(2) Representations under paragraph (1) shall be made in writing to the
public

authority no later than 40 working days after the date on which the
applicant believes

that the public authority has failed to comply with the requirement.

(3) The public authority shall on receipt of the representations and
free of charge -

(a) consider them and any supporting evidence produced by the applicant;
and

(b) decide if it has complied with the requirement.

(4) A public authority shall notify the applicant of its decision under
paragraph (3)

as soon as possible and no later than 40 working days after the date of
receipt of the

representations.

(5) Where the public authority decides that it has failed to comply with
these

Regulations in relation to the request, the notification under paragraph
(4) shall

include a statement of -

(a) the failure to comply;

(b) the action the authority has decided to take to comply with the
requirement; and

(c) the period within which that action is to be taken".

Please note that representations under Regulation 11 can made to the
Council under the first stage of the Have Your Say Scheme. You can
either complete a form on-line at our website -
http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/feedback_for... or you can complete
a form at any One Stop Shop or Library. Alternatively, you can write to
us at Liverpool Direct, Freepost, NWW 3400A, Liverpool L1 3ZZ

If you remain dissatisfied you may also apply to the Information
Commissioner for a decision about whether the request for information
has been dealt with in accordance with the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004.

The Information Commissioner's website is www.ico.gov.uk
<http://www.ico.gov.uk/> and the postal address and telephone numbers
are:-

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF. Fax number 01625 524 510, DX 20819, Telephone 01625
545745. Email - [email address] <mailto:[email address]> (they
advise that their email is not secure).

Finally kindly acknowledge safe receipt.

Yours sincerely

Rajat Jain

Solicitor

Finance & Legal Services

Liverpool City Council

0151 225 3132

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