West Coast Partnership draft franchise agreement - Attachment B

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Transport,

On 27 March 2018, DfT published the Invitation to Tender for the West Coast Partnership on its website. However, Attachment B, the draft franchise agreement, was missing - and two months later it is still missing. Potential bidders would need information in this attachment in order to prepare their bid, and it is therefore likely that they have been provided with a draft of the agreement or some information about what it is anticipated to contain.

I therefore request, in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, any documents that have been provided to potential bidders by the date of this request pertaining to the anticipated content of Attachment B of the ITT , including (but not limited to) a draft of the draft franchise agreement.

Section 5.19.4 e) of the ITT addresses mobile connectivity, which inherently involves electromagnetic radiation. Electromagnetic radiation is categorised as environmental information under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. I therefore also request disclosure of any applicable part of the documentation in accordance with these Regulations.

Please note that this request is specific to information that has been supplied to potential bidders by the date of this request, and will not be satisfied by any information published subsequently on the DfT website.

Yours faithfully,

Layla

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

Dear Layla,

Thank you for your information request of the 28th May. In accordance with section 8(1)(b) of the FOI Act can you please provide your full name and I will be happy to allocate your request to the appropriate rail team in the department to answer.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
FOI Advice Team, Digital Service, Group Assurance and Digital Directorate

Department for Transport
D/04, Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North,
St Leonards on Sea, TN37 7GA

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Dear FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT,

Many thanks for your prompt response. I would draw your attention to the guidance from ICO on "Consideration of the identity or motives of the applicant" https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio..., and therefore whether a full name is material in this case. Also, please note from this guidance that there is no requirement for a full name for requests under the Environmental Impact Regulations.

Yours sincerely,

Layla

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

Dear Layla,

Thank you for your email. I am familiar with the ICO guidance that you refer to. The ICO have also published this guidance: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio.... Paragraph 25 on page 7 makes it clear that a first name provided in isolation does not meet the requirements of section 8(1)(b). The guidance then goes on to provide an example which is applicable to your request. Can you please provide your full name and I will process your request.

Kind Regards,

Ivan Pocock
FOI Advice Team, Digital Service, Group Assurance and Digital Directorate

Department for Transport
D/04, Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North,
St Leonards on Sea, TN37 7GA

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Dear Mr Pocock,

Please note that the ICO guidance that you quote is valid for the Freedom of Information Act only. In relation to the Environmental Information Regulations, please note that paragraph 16 of the ICO guidance that I quote states:
"16. There is no equivalent to section 8 in the EIR. This means that a request made under the EIR will be valid irrespective of whether the requester provides their real name."
Therefore, you have already received a valid request under the Environmental Information Regulations, which you are required to process in accordance with the requirements and timescale (starting from the date of original request) defined in these regulations, irrespective of the validity of the request under the Freedom of Information act.

Yours sincerely,

Layla

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

Dear Layla,

Thank you for your email of the 10th June. We will process those parts of your request that are covered by the Environmental Information Regulations and aim to provide a response on or before the 25th June 2018. If you wish us to process those parts of your request that are covered by the Freedom of Information Act please supply us with your surname.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
FOI Advice Team, Digital Service, Group Assurance and Digital Directorate

Department for Transport
D/04, Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North,
St Leonards on Sea, TN37 7GA

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Department for Transport

Dear Layla,

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for environmental
information which has been allocated reference number E0016172.

A response will be issued to you in due course.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
Department for Transport
FOI Advice Team
Digital Service
Zone D/04
Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North
St Leonards on Sea
East Sussex
TN37 7GA

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Rail-franchise-correspondence, Department for Transport

2 Attachments

Dear Layla,

 

Please find attached a response to your Environmental Information
Regulations request.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

[1][IMG]          Mr Michael Evans 
Senior Correspondence Manager, Briefing & Public
Affairs, Passenger Services 

4/15, Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk 

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
2. https://twitter.com/transportgovuk

Dear Department for Transport,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Transport's handling of my FOI request 'West Coast Partnership draft franchise agreement - Attachment B'.

I do not agree with the assessment in your letter of 25th June that this document falls within the scope of Regulation 12(4)(d) of the EIR 2004. I will comment separately on each of the reasons that you give:

1) "The Franchise Agreement for the West Coast Partnership exists in draft form. Additional policy work may add to or refine the information and the data it contains."

This franchise agreement must be sufficiently mature and stable for franchise bidders to rely on it in preparation of their bids. In previous franchise ITTs, the draft contract has been included in the documentation posted on the ITT web page (see https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio... for an example). There are no grounds for treating the draft franchise agreement for the West Coast Partnership any differently to previous franchise ITTs. It is clear from the draft franchise agreement for the South Eastern franchise that it would be further developed in the light of the successful bid, and it is unclear why there is any material difference for the draft franchise agreement for the West Coast Partnership.

2) "It is clearly important that any draft, incomplete and/or unfinished information relating to the West Coast Partnership is not made public, as to do so would mislead the public into thinking that decisions have been made when in fact they have not."

It is difficult to see why an integral part of the documentation for an ITT should contain any 'draft, incomplete and/or unfinished information', because this document is essential for potential bidders to develop their bid. However, if the draft franchise agreement does contain any such information, it must have been drawn to the attention of potential bidders, so that they could have taken this into account in developing their bids. It may be that this was done in separate documentation to the ITT, and I have therefore requested disclosure of any such documentation in a separate request. Therefore, whether the 'draft, incomplete and/or unfinished' status of any information is described within the draft franchise agreement or in separate documentation, it will be available to the public and they will not be misled.

3) "It is also in the public interest that officials have a safe space in which to formulate and develop decisions relating to the future of rail franchising." "Officials would be reluctant to provide advice and views if drafts were routinely published ahead of final announcements and publications. The quality of the advice and information in the drafts, and hence the quality of decision making would suffer."

This argument might be valid if the draft ITT was an internal working document of DfT. However, as stated in your letter of 25th June, the draft franchise agreement has already been shared with potential bidders, The document has therefore already been made available to the key stakeholders, and there is no reason why it should not be made available more widely.

In summary, the draft ITT is not "still in the course of completion, to unfinished documents or to incomplete data", because it has been made available to potential bidders to the West Coast Partnership franchise, as a key part of the documentation necessary for them to develop their bids. The corresponding document has been made available in the public domain for previous franchise award processes, and there are no grounds for treating this award any differently.

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

Yours faithfully,

Layla

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

Dear Layla,

Thank you for your email.

This is to confirm receipt of your request for an internal review.

The department aims to respond to you on or before 3 August 2018.

Kind regards
FOI Advice Team
Department for Transport

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FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

Dear Layla

 

I am writing to advise you that the Senior Civil Servant who is carrying
out the independent review of your FOI response requires a further five
working days to complete their review. They aim to provide you with a
response by 10th August. Please accept our apologies for the slight delay.

 

Kind regards

FOI Advice Team

Department for Transport

 

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FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

Dear Layla

 

Further to my email of 3 August, I am writing to advise you that the
Senior Civil Servant who is carrying out the independent review of your
FOI response requires a further time working days to complete their
review. They aim to provide you with a response by 31 August, which is the
40 working day limit that the ICO recommends a public authority should
take to conduct a review.  If we are able to respond sooner, we will do
so.

 

Kind regards,

 

FOI Advice Team

Department for Transport 
 

From: FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT
Sent: 03 August 2018 11:00
To: '[FOI #487745 email]'
<[FOI #487745 email]>
Cc: FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT <[email address]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - West Coast
Partnership draft franchise agreement - Attachment B

 

Dear Layla

 

I am writing to advise you that the Senior Civil Servant who is carrying
out the independent review of your FOI response requires a further five
working days to complete their review. They aim to provide you with a
response by 10th August. Please accept our apologies for the slight delay.

 

Kind regards

FOI Advice Team

Department for Transport

 

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Rail-franchise-correspondence, Department for Transport

3 Attachments

Dear Layla,

 

Please find attached a response to your Internal Review request.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

[1][IMG]          Mr Michael Evans 
Senior Correspondence Manager, Briefing & Public
Affairs, Passenger Services 

4/15, Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk 

 

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Layla left an annotation ()

the delay in providing this information through the need to request an internal review meant that it was not available in a timely manner during the franchise tender process. Was this intentional?