McKinsey

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Exiting the European Union,

Thank you very much for your recent response to my FOI request - my apologies for not being aware of the publicly available transparency data. This request is a new FOI request, following up on the previous one.

A brief review of the transparency data notes that the Department for Exiting the EU made a series of large payments to McKinsey, presumably for management consultancy services. I identify five payments during 2017: £1.9m (24 April), £0.5m (5 Sep), £0.75m (5 Sep), £0.3m (13 Sep) £0.4m (1 Dec)

For each of the payments, I wish to understand - as precisely as possible - what benefit, the taxypayer received. I am aware of the limits imposed by the FOI act around commercial confidentiality (s43.2) and policy advice (s36), as well as others, and, within these constraints, want to understand as much as I can.

I therefore ask to see, for each of these five payments, a list of the deliverables produced in exchange for each payment, and a brief note as to what type of information/advice the deliverable contains. I imagine that such a list should exist in the annex to a contract with McKinsey. (Hypothetical example: "McKinsey must produce an interim report, which covers a diagnosis of the impact of 5 sectors" "McKinsey must provide weekly update notes to senior DExEU leadership, showing the status of progress in each workstream")

Note that I am not asking to see the deliverable itself (which I imagine would run into s36 problems) nor am I asking to know how the advice was generated (which, as I found in previous FOI requests) might run into a s43.2 problems around showing a commercially sensitive methodolog..

Finally, I would take this opportunity to remind you of your s16 duty to provide advice and assistance in this request: my overarching aim to is understand, in as much detail as possible, what the taxpayer got from these payments. I would appreciate any advice you can give to meet my request within the constraints of the FOI act.

Sincerely,

James Hirsch

DEXEU Freedom of Information Team Mailbox, Department for Exiting the European Union

Dear James Hirsch,
Thank you for your FOI request, reference DEX001201. We will now respond
in line with the Freedom of Information Act.
Kind regards, 
DExEU FOI Team

Freedom of Information Team

9 Downing Street | London | SW1A 2AG
[1]DfEEU_CYAN_SML_AW.png
E: [2][DEEU request email]  

You can follow DExEU on Twitter: @DExEUgov

show quoted sections

DEXEU Freedom of Information Team Mailbox, Department for Exiting the European Union

1 Attachment

Dear James Hirsch,
Thank you for your FOI request, reference DEX001201. Please find our
attached response.
Kind regards, 
DExEU FOI Team

Freedom of Information Team

9 Downing Street | London | SW1A 2AG
[1]DfEEU_CYAN_SML_AW.png
E: [2][DEEU request email]  

You can follow DExEU on Twitter: @DExEUgov

show quoted sections

Dear Department for Exiting the European Union,

Thank you for your response to my FoI request DEX001201.

I understand the logic you have set out for withholding this information - but I am going to have to request a review of your public interest test under a s43 exception.

Briefly, my reasons for requesting the review:

1. You identify a potential increase in 'public trust and engagement with the government' as a reason for releasing the information. However, you do not appear to have considered the other, more pressing reasons to release the data: namely, to allow informed scrutiny of a very significant piece of government spending. Whilst there is a general benefit from informed public scrutiny of such contracts, there is a particular need in this case, where the nature of the contract covers such skills as the government might already reasonably be supposed to possess inhouse ('advanced technical project management capabilities' and '[generating] options for consideration' on various design questions). I would also suggest that there is a heightened public interest in releasing the information because of the well-publicised difficulties in creating the DExEU - releasing this information would increase public confidence that the tendering process for this big peice of spending was carried out with a sufficient degree of rigour.

2. It is not obvious to me why releasing this information should harm McKinsey's commercial interests. (It is relevant to note here that I do not ask for details on the methodology or approach that McKinsey adopted, which would have a much stronger claim to being commercially sensitive information.) I am not sure why releasing information about the deliverables that McKinsey committed to would give McKinsey's competitors a 'competitive advantage'.

3. If you do not accept my argument 2 - that releasing the information would give a competitive advantage to McKinsey's competitors - then I would advance a further argument. Namely - any loss to McKinsey by releasing this information would be more than made up by the positive public benefit that would come from a more transparent market in consultancy services. If you release this information, you will, in effect, tell the marketplace that the government is willing to pay £xm, in exchange for these Y specific services. Releasing this would create a known price point in the market - and would encourage consultancies in the future to offer more services/less money for the same service, in order to win the contract. In short, the public could have a substantial commercial benefit from releasing the information.

4.Finally, I would suggest that the hypothetical you pose - that releasing this information would harm the ability of the Government to secure such services in the future - is far fetched at best. There are many obvious reasons why this is so - but most importantly is that the government is an extremely large contractor of consultancy services and has the power to set market norms: if it becomes a market normal for UK public sector consultancy that you must declare all of your deliverables, then it it is much more likely than not that most consultancy firms would comply with this.

I look forward to the results of your internal review.

Yours faithfully,

James Hirsch

DEXEU Freedom of Information Team Mailbox, Department for Exiting the European Union

Dear James Hirsch, 
This email confirms that we have received your internal review request on
FOI DEX001201. The Department will now conduct an internal review and will
contact you once this has been concluded.
Kind regards, 
DExEU FOI team

Freedom of Information Team

9 Downing Street | London | SW1A 2AG
[1]DfEEU_CYAN_SML_AW.png
E: [2][DEEU request email]  

You can follow DExEU on Twitter: @DExEUgov

show quoted sections

Dear DEXEU Freedom of Information Team Mailbox,

Gentle nudge about this internal review - you've had a month. What's going on?

James Hirsch

DEXEU Freedom of Information Team Mailbox, Department for Exiting the European Union

Dear James Hirsch,
Thank you for your e-mail of 20 June regarding your request for an
internal review.  We are not yet ready to respond.  The Department aims to
complete internal reviews within a maximum of 40 working days, however,
this is not always possible. We will respond as soon as the internal
review is complete.
regards

Freedom of Information Team

9 Downing Street | London | SW1A 2AG
[1]DfEEU_CYAN_SML_AW.png
E: [2][DEEU request email]  

You can follow DExEU on Twitter: @DExEUgov

References

Visible links
2. mailto:[DEEU request email]

Dear DEXEU,

Thank you for your response.

I would draw your attention to the guidance from the ICO regarding internal reviews: '[the public authority should] ensure the review takes no longer than 20 working days in most cases, or 40 in exceptional circumstances.' I completely understand that these reviews take time - and you have many other things to be getting on with - but I hope this can be resolved soon and in line with the ICO's recommendations.

Source: last question on here: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...

I look forward to your response as soon as possible.

All the best

James Hirsch

Dear DEXEU Freedom of Information Team

A gentle reminder about this internal review. We have now had more than the 40 working days which the ICO say is permissable even in exceptional circumstances. (We are well past the 20 days allowed for 'most cases'.) I am sure you are very busy with Brexit - but FOI remains important too.

I await your immediate response to this request. I would also like to understand what, precisely, the 'exceptional circumstances' are which have caused the delay in this FOI request.

Best wishes,

James Hirsch

DEXEU Freedom of Information Team Mailbox, Department for Exiting the European Union

Dear James Hirsch, 
Thank you for your email regarding your FOI internal review request
DEX001201. I am writing to let you know that we are still processing this
case due to an unexpected volume of work. We apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause.
We hope to issue our response to you as soon as possible.
Kind regards, 
DExEU FOI Team

Freedom of Information Team

9 Downing Street | London | SW1A 2AG
[1]DfEEU_CYAN_SML_AW.png
E: [2][DEEU request email]  

You can follow DExEU on Twitter: @DExEUgov

show quoted sections

Dear DEXEU,

I submitted my request for a internal review (DEXEU1201) on the 23rd May. It has now been three months - and no sign of a substantive reply from you.

I have previously reminded you - and remind you again - that the ICO guidlines state that ''[the public authority should] ensure the review takes no longer than 20 working days in most cases, or 40 in exceptional circumstances.'

I ask you to now complete this review and share the results with me. With that response, and per my note of 25 July, I would also like you to thoroughly and comprehensively understand the 'exceptional circumstances' that have caused such a delay in this request.

If I do not receive your response within the next 10 working days (i.e. by Monday 10 Sep after allowing for the bank holiday), I will reluctantly have to submit a complaint to the ICO. I would obviously wish to avoid doing this if possible and so look forward to your reply.

All best wishes

James Hirsch

Dear DEXEU,

As I have heard absolutely nothing from you regarding this request for an internal review, I will regretfully have to complain to the ICO.

I do hope that, complaint notwithstanding, you can complete this IR.

Yours sincerely,

James Hirsch

DEXEU Freedom of Information Team Mailbox, Department for Exiting the European Union

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Hirsch,
Please find attached our response to your request for an Internal Review
(reference DEX001201) together with information that is being disclosed to
you.
Kind regards,
FOI Team
DExEU

Freedom of Information Team

9 Downing Street | London | SW1A 2AG
[1]DfEEU_CYAN_SML_AW.png
E: [2][DEEU request email]  

You can follow DExEU on Twitter: @DExEUgov

show quoted sections