Contract for the School to School system

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Education,

I would like to request the contract for the development and maintance of the School to School (S2S) system described on your website here:

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/admi...

Obviously this will require some judgement on your part to redact security senstive parts of the contact.

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Evans

Department for Education

Dear Ms Evans

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number
2012/0040403.

Thank you

Department for Education
Public Communications Unit
Tel: 0370 000 2288

Web: www.education.gov.uk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/educationgovuk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

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Department for Education

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Evans

Thank you for your recent email.  A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible.  For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2012/0041591.

Regards
Department for Education

Web: [1]www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: [2]www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: [3]www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

[4]Description: Description: Description:
cid:image001.png@01CD10C9.42884470

 

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Department for Education

Dear Ms Evans,
Thank you for your request for information which was received on 12 June
2012.

You requested a copy of the contract for the development and maintenance
of the School to School (S2S) system. I have dealt with your request under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

The Department for Education does not hold a contract specific to the
School to School System. This system is one of many supported systems
covered by a contract the Department has with Capgemeini UK plc which
incorporates the following categories of service:

 

1.    Consultancy and Business Transformation

2.    Systems Development Services

3.    Support and Maintenance Services

4.    IT Support Services

5.    Hosting Services

 

I am therefore unable to provide you with a contract specifically for this
system as it falls within the scope of services detailed above.

 

If you have any queries about this letter, please do not hesitate to
contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number in any future
communications.

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be considered by an
independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may then
contact the Information Commissioner’s office.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Karl Hoods

Deputy Director,

Central Service Management Unit (Chief Information Officer Group)

 
Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2012/0041591.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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Dear Department for Education,

Thank you for your reply. I would like to modify my original freedom of information request[1] and ask for the contract between Capgemeini UK plc and the Department for Education providing the services you outlined above - with reasonable redactions for security reasons as necessary.

If you can't provide the contract at all then key performance indicators for Capgemeini UK plc would be useful.

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Evans

[1] http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...
[2] http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...

Department for Education

Dear Ms Evans

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2012/0045309.

Thank you

Department for Education
Public Communications Unit
Tel: 0370 000 2288

Web: www.education.gov.uk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/educationgovuk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

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Department for Education

Dear Ms Evans,

 
Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 5 July
2012. Following on from your original FOI request, reference 2012/0041591,
relating to the School to School system, you requested a copy of the
contract between the Department for Education and Capgemini UK plc. I am
dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the
Act”).

 

The Department holds the information you have requested.  However, I
consider that the following exemption applies to some of the information
requested:

 

Section 43 (2) of the Act. This Section provides for information to be
exempt from disclosure where disclosure would, or would be likely to,
prejudice the commercial interests of any person.

 

The Act obliges the Department to respond to requests promptly, and in any
case no later than 20 working days after receiving your request.  However,
where one of the exemptions listed above is applicable, the Department
must consider whether the public interest lies in disclosing or
withholding the information.  In these circumstances the Act allows the
time for response to be longer than 20 working days.

 

In your case the Department estimates that it will take an additional 11
working days to take a decision on where the balance of the public
interest lies.  It is anticipated that you will receive a full response by
10 August.  If it appears that it will take longer than this to reach a
conclusion, we will keep you informed.

 

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me.  Please
remember to quote the reference number in any future communications. 

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter.  Your complaint will be considered by
an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request. 

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. 
Yours sincerely,

Karl Hoods
Deputy Director
Central Service Management Unit (Chief Inforation Officer Group)

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2012/0045309.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Dear Department for Education,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Education's handling of my FOI request 'Contract for the School to School system'.

I would like to point to the ICOs guidance on applying the S.43(2) exemption.

As such you should have provided evidence that Capgemini consider the release of the information would be prejudicial to their commercial interests.

The ICOs guidance clearly states:

"The public authority must not speculate as to whether there is any commercial detriment and the reasons why without any evidence or input from the third party."

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

Could you please confirm that you have been in touch
with Capgemini specifically with respect to my request and if so could you provide a relevant excerpt from the contract between the department for education and Capgemini which makes clear the information being sought would be commercially detrimental if released.

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

and the reference number is 2012/0045309.

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Evans

Department for Education

Dear Ms Evans

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number
2012/0051389.

Thank you

Department for Education
Public Communications Unit
Tel: 0370 000 2288

Web: www.education.gov.uk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/educationgovuk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

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Department for Education

Dear Ms Evans,
Thank you for your correspondence of 27 ^ July 2012, requesting an
internal review of Department for Education's handling of your FOI request
'Contract for the School to School system'.  I would firstly like to
apologise for any misunderstanding in relation to my response dated 26 ^
July. The Department for Education has not yet formally replied to your
FOI request, my letter of 26 July was merely informing you of a slight
extension to the response time, whilst we considered the Public Interest
Test arguments in relation to a possible exemption which may apply.

As indicated in my reply on 26 July we requested a further 11 working days
to consider this exemption and anticipate that you will receive a full
response by 10^th August.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me.  Please
remember to quote the reference number in any future communications. 
 
Yours sincerely,

Karl Hoods
Deputy Director,
Central Service Management Unit
Chief Information Officer Group

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2012/0051389.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Department for Education

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Evans,
Thank you for your request for information which was received on 5 July 2012 in which you
requested a copy of the contract between the Department for Education and Capgemini UK plc,
this follows on from your FOI request, reference 2012/0041591 relating to the School to
School system.

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”).

I have enclosed with this response, a copy of the contract as requested, however I must
advise you that, as referenced in the response from Karl Hoods on 26 July 2012, some of the
information requested is being withheld under section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, because these redactions are  considered to be commercially sensitive information.

Section 43(2) provides for information to be exempt from disclosure where disclosure under
this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person.
This exemption requires a public interest test to be carried out, to determine whether the
public interest in withholding the information, outweighs the public interest in its
release.

In this case, to reveal the financial relationships between the Department and Capgemini UK
plc could adversely affect the Department's ability to maintain a strong bargaining position
during future negotiations and to obtain maximum value for money in future agreements,
resulting in the less effective use of public money. 

Although there is a public interest in the transparency of the accountability of public
funds to ensure that public money is being used effectively, and that departments are
getting value for money, the general interest in releasing the information must be balanced
against the public interest in protecting commercially sensitive information.  The arguments
for and against release have been considered and it has been decided that the balance of
public interest falls in favour of the exemption in this case and as such financial
information has been redacted from the contract.

Further to the above, it is considered that the release of the Contractor’s methodologies,
policies and processes, information relating to limits of liability, Contractor’s insurance
and personnel would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of the contractors
providing the service.   Capgemini UK plc have a clause within their contract with the
Department, which states that they consent to the contract being published in its entirety
except for those parts of the Contract which are listed in Schedule 18, Commercially
Sensitive Information, these exclusions are listed above.

It is therefore considered that it is not in the public interest to disclose information
detailed, as it is not already publicly known and would be likely to be used by competitors
in a particular market to gain a competitive advantage.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright. You are free to use
it for your own purposes, including for private study and non-commercial research, and for
any other purpose authorised by an exception in current copyright law. Documents (except
photographs) can be also used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of
news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the
permission of the copyright holder.

Most documents produced by a government department or agency [in this case the Department
for Education] will be protected by Crown Copyright. Most Crown copyright information can be
re-used under the Open Government Licence
([1]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...). For information about
the OGL and about re-using Crown Copyright information please see The National Archives
website
-[2]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/infor...
.
 
Copyright in other documents may rest with a third party. For information about obtaining
permission from a third party see the Intellectual Property Office’s website at
[3]www.ipo.gov.uk.

If you have any queries about this letter please do not hesitate to contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should make a complaint
to the Department by writing to me within two calendar months of the date of this letter.
Your complaint will be considered by an independent review panel, who were not involved in
the original consideration of your request.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may then contact the
Information Commissioner’s office.

 
Yours sincerely,

Keith Holder
Head of Service Delivery (CIOG)

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2012/0045309.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

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