Dear Sarah Jay,

Thank you for your email.

Please can you clarify what you mean by “agency” so that we can
appropriately consider your request?

Kind regards,

Corporate Services
[1]ekcgroup.ac.uk

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Dear Sarah Jay,

Thank you for your request for information submitted under the Freedom of
Information Act. The information that you have requested is annotated onto
your message below in blue text.

We consider your question, regarding the money spent with each specific
agency and in which department, to be commercially sensitive and as such,
exempt from release under section 43(2) of the FOI Act. Section 43(2)
exempts information where disclosure would, or would be likely, to
prejudice the commercial interest of any person (an individual, person,
company, public authority or legal entity). Section 43(2)) is a qualified
exemption and we are required to conduct a public interest test when
applying a qualified exemption. This means that after it has been decided
that the exemption is engaged, the public interest in releasing the
information must be considered. If the public interest in disclosing the
information outweighs the public interest in disclosing it then the
exemption does not apply and the information must be released. In the FOI
Act there is a presumption that information should be released unless
there is a compelling reason to withhold it.

The public interest test has now been concluded and the balance of the
public interest has found to fall in favour of withholding the information
covered by the section 43(2) exemption.

Release of this information would negatively impact upon future
procurement and tendering activities and lead to unfair competitive
advantage.

I trust that this information answers your query but should you be unhappy
with the response provided or require further clarification, you may
contact me by email. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of any
further response from EKC Group, you may apply directly to the Information
Commissioner (ICO) as long as all lines of enquiry with EKC Group have
been exhausted. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

[1]www.ico.gov.uk  

Yours sincerely

Jack Collison
Group Head of Corporate Services
[2]ekcgroup.ac.uk

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