Department for Business, Energy &
Industrial Strategy
1 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0ET
Mr John Eynon
T +44 (0)20 7215 5000 - Public enquiries
+44 (0)20 7215 6740 - Textphone (
for
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
those with hearing impairment)
E
xxx.xxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
www.gov.uk/bis
FOI2018/00262
15 February 2018
Dear Mr John Eynon,
Thank you for your email of 4 January where you requested the following information:
Dear Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy's handling of my FOI request 'Financial breakdown of spending by Government on the
UK BIM Level 2 and Level 3 programmes, also now known as Digital Built Britain'.
Whilst I accept that some information has been made available, the vagueness of some of the
information supplied raises concerns both about public transparency for funding and also
accountability to the taxpayer, who is after all funding this work.
In particular, shouldn't there be more detail on the following items?:
1 - £2, 390,000, paid to "other Government depts"/ to whom? for what? there needs to be a little
more detail here.
2 - £5, 503, 000 given to the Construction Industry Council? Just like that? How was this
procured? Assessed etc? Surely there was some accountability here?
3 - £12m given to Innovate UK? Again just like that? Comments as above, no detail given,
nothing about procurement method, value for money and accountability over the arrangements.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this
address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/financial_breakdown_of_spending
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ('the Act'), you have the right to:
know whether we hold the information you require
be provided with that information (subject to any exemptions under the Act which may
apply).
1.
The Internal Review is currently being conducted and the findings will be reported
separately (FOI2017/26235). However, the requirements of points 2 and 3 above were not
immediately clear in the original request and pragmatically the Department have treated them
as a new request for information. Accordingly, point 1 will be considered as part of the Internal
Review and points 2 and 3 are now considered under this request with the response set out
below.
2.
As previously reported, the Construction Industry Council (CIC) was provided a grant
under Section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982. Further details of the Act and the
circumstances in which grants can be awarded can be found at
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1982/52/part/III. 3.
Grants provided under the Act are reported annually to Parliament and the most recent
relevant to the grant can be found at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-development-act-1982-annual-report-
2015-to-2016
4.
The purpose of the grant, delivered with industry support through a major sector umbrella
body, was to enable the construction industry to respond to the BIM recommendations set out it
the Government Construction Strategy 2011
(https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/61152/Governm
ent-Construction-Strategy_0.pdf) and often referred to as the ‘2016 mandate’. The Industry’s
collaborative response under the grant programme included the development of technical
standards and guidance, establishment of support networks, conferences and workshops and
BIM development work.
5.
The CIC Executive and Boa
rd (http://cic.org.uk/about-us/board.php) were accountable to
the Department for the execution of the Grant programme. The management of the programme
was via regular meetings with the CIC team and the finances were included as part of the
annual audit process of CIC. The worth of the programme was also assessed by industry feed-
back to the department throughout the project.
6.
The programme amounted to an industry driven ‘change-programme’ and as such it was
both visible and participative. The outputs of the programme were widely publicised and made
freely available to the construction sector via the ma
in www.bimtaskgroup.org (now retired but
linked to the Centre of Digital Built Britain at the University of Cambridge) or sites operated by
other related industry bodies including professional institutes and standards organisations e.g.
BS
I https://www.bsigroup.com/. The nature of the work, people involved in the programme,
interaction opportunities and outputs were widely disseminated including via industry bodies,
conference presentations, press interaction and the 79 editions of the CIC BIM Task Group
Newsletters.
7.
The CIC programme was closed in 2016 at completion of its task.
8.
In the 2016 Budget, the Government announced a new 3-year programme known as
‘Digital Built Britain’ (DBB, aka BIM L3) and made £15m available to BEIS to take forward the
programme. The purpose of this programme is primarily aimed at developing a framework
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within which new digital and data applications for construction and the built environment can be
developed. For the purposes of continuity and cohesion, the DBB maintained a programme to
continue supporting aspects of L2 BIM. Innovate UK - an Executive, Non-departmental body of
this Department
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/innovate-uk - acted as the
Departmental delivery vehicle and was not subject to our procurement. Innovate UK handled
the procurement of personnel and services to deliver the DBB project and were identified in the
original response as the point of record for those activities.
9.
Innovate UK are subject to Public Sector rules in terms of their procurement and
requirements to achieve ‘value for money’ for the tax payer and in common with all public
bodies are monitored for compliance.
Appeals procedure
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal
review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of
the response to your original request and should be addressed to the Information Rights Unit:
Information Rights Unit
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
1 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0ET
Email
: xxx.xxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly
to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely
,
Business Sectors Team
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