Contracts related to building work completed at Gloucestershire Heritage Hub

The request was partially successful.

Dear Gloucestershire County Council,

In relation to the press release issued by the Council on 09.09.2019 titled "Hats off to Beard Construction – building work completed at Gloucestershire Heritage Hub" please can you supply:

(1) A copy of any tender announcements, contract award notices, and contract documents related to building work on the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub.

Please include details of the contract awarded to Beard Construction, as well as any prior contracts.

If no formal documents exist, please provide any correspondence relating to the award of this contract.

(2) The name of the contractor or contractors working on this project prior to Beard, the reason they did not complete this contract, and a copy of any documentation relation to termination of any prior contract.

(3) The total amount spent on the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub building work

(4) The total amount spent with Beard Construction on the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub building work

(5) Copies of any correspondence between the Council and Beard concerning the press release issued on 9th September

Please note:

* I have already checked the public contracts register for details of any contracts, and could not find any listed contracts with Beard Construction. I enquired with the Customer Service team via Twitter who advised me to make an FOI request: https://twitter.com/timdavies/status/117...

I would not have needed to make this request if information had been available on the contracts portal.

* If some redactions of information are required for reasons of legitimate commercial confidentiality, I will understand this. However, if substantial redactions are made, I would expect to see clear reasoning as to why information is deemed commercial sensitive, taking into account that information from contracts should only be redacted if provision for redaction has been made in the contract, and redactions should be limited to those sections covered by such provisions.

With thanks for your time,

Best regards

Tim Davies

Gloucestershire CC, Gloucestershire County Council

Information request
Our reference: 14473433

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear ‎Mr Davies‏
 
Request for Information (Reference: 14473433 )
 
Thank you for your request for information, received on 17 September 2019.
 
Request summary:
In relation to the press release issued by the Council on 09.09.2019
titled "Hats off to Beard Construction ' building work completed at
Gloucestershire Heritage Hub" please can you supply:
(1) A copy of any tender announcements, contract award notices, and
contract documents related to building work on the Gloucestershire
Heritage Hub.
Please include details of the contract awarded to Beard Construction, as
well as any prior contracts.
If no formal documents exist, please provide any correspondence relating
to the award of this contract.
(2) The name of the contractor or contractors working on this project
prior to Beard, the reason they did not complete this contract, and a copy
of any documentation relation to termination of any prior contract.
(3) The total amount spent on the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub building
work
(4) The total amount spent with Beard Construction on the Gloucestershire
Heritage Hub building work
(5) Copies of any correspondence between the Council and Beard concerning
the press release issued on 9th September
 
We aim to respond to your request no later than midnight on 15 October
2019 (the statutory timescale of 20 working days, starting on the working
day following receipt of your request). We may need to contact you if the
request needs to be clarified; this is to ensure we provide you with the
information you require.
 
If the information you have requested is held by another public authority,
we will inform you of this so that you can contact them directly.
 
Gloucestershire County Council is committed to the principles of
information disclosure and will, wherever possible, provide all
information requested. However, some information you have requested may
not be provided to you; this will only be information that can be withheld
by law, and, in most cases, the reason will be explained to you when we
send out any information that can be released. We will also inform you as
soon as possible if we do not hold the information you have requested.
 
Our response to your request may be published in our disclosure log, with
your personal details removed. Our new disclosure log can be found on our
website at: [1]www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/foi.  In future, you may find
that the answer to your questions about the Council has already been
published.
 
Yours sincerely

Request Support Assistant
Information Management Services

01452 324000

References

Visible links
1. http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/foi

Gloucestershire CC, Gloucestershire County Council

Information request
Our reference: 14473433

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
Dear Mr Davies,
Apologies for the delay in repying to your request in relation to the
press release issued by the Council on 09.09.2019 titled "Hats off to
Beard Construction ' building work completed at Gloucestershire Heritage
Hub".
Unfortunately we are not yet in a position to provide copies of the
information requested. We require more time to undertake a Public Interest
Test as we consider some of the information/documentation could be
commercially sensitive. Therefore, at this time, I am required to issue
you with a refusal notice while we continue this assessment. In line with
s10(3) of the Freedom of Information Act, and Information Commissioners
Office guidance on Time Limits for compliance, we will reach a decision
by 12th November 2019 at the very latest, and will contact you on or by
this date to confirm the outcome of our Public Interest test.
 
Yours sincerely
Elizabeth Varley
Information Requests Officer
Information Management Service

01452 324000

 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.

Dear Elizabeth,

Please can you provide details of the exemptions engaged by my request, and the basis on which you are carrying out a public interest test.

At a minimum I would expect to be informed which of the 5 numbered points in my request have engaged an exemption that requires a public interest test to be carried out, and the details of the exemption engaged, with explicit reference to the grounds you are relying on under the Freedom of Information Act.

You clearly state that you are only considering that 'some' of the information may be commercially sensitive. This would mean you are able to provide, within the deadlines stipulated in the FOI act, the other information which is not commercially sensitive.

Note also that four of the five items I requested are information that, under government guidance, should be proactively published in any case.

Please can you provide immediately any elements of the information requested that do not engage an exemption at this point.

I write this having consulted the ICOs guidance on refusal requests (https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...)

Yours sincerely,

Tim Davies

Gloucestershire CC, Gloucestershire County Council

Dear Mr. Davies,
 
Unfortunately, we require more time to consider the public interest
regarding the release of this information. Therefore, at this time, I am
required to issue you with a refusal notice while we continue our
assessment.

At this time, the information is exempt from disclosure under Section 43
of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as it is commercially sensitive
information. However, following the conclusion of the public interest
test, this decision may change and the information could be released.

We estimate that we will reach a decision by 12th November 2019 and we
will contact you on or by this date to confirm the outcome of our Public
Interest test. This email therefore acts as a refusal notice under Section
17 (2) of the FoIA as the information you have requested is exempt from
disclosure at this point.

Yours sincerely,

Elizabeth Varley

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Elizabeth,

Please can you provide details of the exemptions engaged by my request,
and the basis on which you are carrying out a public interest test.

At a minimum I would expect to be informed which of the 5 numbered points
in my request have engaged an exemption that requires a public interest
test to be carried out, and the details of the exemption engaged, with
explicit reference to the grounds you are relying on under the Freedom of
Information Act.

You clearly state that you are only considering that 'some' of the
information may be commercially sensitive. This would mean you are able to
provide, within the deadlines stipulated in the FOI act, the other
information which is not commercially sensitive.

Note also that four of the five items I requested are information that,
under government guidance, should be proactively published in any case.

Please can you provide immediately any elements of the information
requested that do not engage an exemption at this point.

I write this having consulted the ICOs guidance on refusal requests
(https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...)

Yours sincerely,

Tim Davies

show quoted sections

Dear Gloucestershire CC,

I do not consider this response to address my concerns.

I am therefore requesting an Internal Review of this initial refusal on the grounds that a substantial number of the items I requested do not fall under legitimate commercially sensitive protections. I am of the view that you have misapplied this exemption.

You only have the right to conduct a Public Interest Test in cases where the exemption is engaged, and you should supply all items for which this exemption is not engaged within the 20 day deadline.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Davies

Gloucestershire CC, Gloucestershire County Council

Dear Mr Davies,
 
Thank you for your email.  Please rest assured that we are continuing work
on your request and intend to respond as soon as possible - we just need
more time to be able to do this due to its complexity.
 
Once you have received a final response to your request, if you remain
unhappy with the time taken and the way your request has been handled we
will undertake an internal review in line with our compliance complaints
procedure.  Please note that whilst the response time to your request has
been extended to 12 November, we are aiming to get back to you much sooner
than that.
 
Thank you for your patience.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Teresa Wilmshurst
IMS Manager (Requests)
Gloucestershire County Council

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Gloucestershire CC,

I do not consider this response to address my concerns.

I am therefore requesting an Internal Review of this initial refusal on
the grounds that a substantial number of the items I requested do not fall
under legitimate commercially sensitive protections. I am of the view that
you have misapplied this exemption.

You only have the right to conduct a Public Interest Test in cases where
the exemption is engaged, and you should supply all items for which this
exemption is not engaged within the 20 day deadline.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Davies

show quoted sections

Gloucestershire CC, Gloucestershire County Council

10 Attachments

Information request
Our reference: 14473433

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
Dear  Mr Davies
 
Thank you for your request for information received on  17 September 2019
.
 
Please find attached our response to your request.
 
Yours sincerely
Teresa Wilmshurst
IMS Manager (Requests)
Information Management Service

01452 324000

 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.