Dear Barry Wilson,
 
Re' your FOIA request dated 31st December 2021.
 
I apologise for the delay in responding. Your request required us to
consult with a number of suppliers, some of whom have, or are taking,
legal advice on disclosure of the information requested.
 
I set out below our responses at this point. I will continue the dialogue
with suppliers on any outstanding issues in order to conclude as soon as
is possible.    
 
You requested "the scripts for all of your automated announcements. This
should include the scripts for both your station platform announcements
(Atos Worldline) and your onboard train announcements
(375/376/377/395/465/466/707)."
 
Your request has been handled under the FOIA and I can confirm that we
hold some of the information requested.
 
Station Platform Announcements - We do not hold this information.
Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public
authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to
the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the
Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004. Our supplier Worldline have confirmed the following. "In
order to obtain a standard announcement script for your managed stations,
you would need to ask Worldline to compile such a script. Compilation and
provision of this script falls outside of the usual service agreement;
therefore a cost would be incurred. Worldline can confirm that provision
of the information would exceed the £450 limit." We are therefore unable
to provide this information.
 
Onboard Announcements –
Class 395 Units – This information is not held. This is because it is
coded within systems and is not in a format which can be exported. It
would require us to manually compile information, which we estimate at 4
weeks work. This exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’  set out in section 12 of
the FOIA. (Section 12 of the FOIA Section 12(1) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and sections 4(3) and 4(4) of the ‘Fees Regulations’
2004 allow a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of
determining if the information is held, and then locating, retrieving and
extracting that information would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450.
This figure is equivalent to 18 hours work, at a set rate of £25 an hour.)
 
This information is held. Copies of announcement scripts for the following
classes of rolling stock are held by our supplier BTROS:
375,376,377,465,466. This information is BTROS’s IPR and is copyright
protected. I am awaiting a response from BTROS’s legal advisor on
disclosure and will update you ASAP.
 
We have already released copies of the announcement files which you can
find on this link.
[1]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/o...
 
Appeal Rights
 
If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled and wish to
make a complaint or request a review of our decision, please write to the
Southeastern Company Solicitor, 2^nd Floor, 4 More London Riverside, SE1
2AU, or by email at [2][email address] Your request must
be submitted within 40 working days of receipt of this letter.
 
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 (ICO) can be contacted at
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF or you can contact the ICO through the 'Make a
Complaint' section of their website on this link:
[3]https://ico.org.uk/make-acomplaint/
 
 
Regards
 
Mark Willson
Data Protection and FOIA Officer
southeasternrailway.co.uk
 
southeastern
2nd Floor,
4 More London Riverside,
London, SE1 2AU.
 

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Dear Barry Wilson,
 
Further to my correspondence of earlier today, I can confirm that the
information is held, but is exempt from disclosure under sections 41 and
43 of the FOIA. The response from our supplier Bombardier is shown below.
 
“Bombardier object to the disclosure of the Records pursuant to sections
41 and 43 of the FOI Act.
 
The Records contain unique reference numbers that are used by the on-train
software to construct coherent audio sentences.
 
By way of overview, the Records constitute Bombardier's confidential
technical information having been created and issued by Bombardier to
Southeastern under contracts for creation of onboard train announcements
for Class 465/466 & 375/376/377 trains and which are subject to
confidentiality.
 
The Records contain valuable trade secrets which give Bombardier a
competitive advantage. The competitive advantage is inherent in the manner
in which the audio files and Bombardier's software interact allowing us to
quickly and efficiently to update the audio databases, such interaction
between software and audio is unique to Bombardier and gives Bombardier a
competitive edge over its competitors. Access to this highly technical
information is limited to a small number of Bombardier employees.
 
Further, Bombardier derives significant revenue from licensing of its
software to its customers such that they are able to maintain the
announcements.
 
In summary all of the Records are comprised of commercial, technical and
other information whose disclosure could cause significant material loss
to Bombardier and prejudice its competitive position, insofar as our
competitors could leverage Bombardier's unique process for construction of
the audio files to improve their own commercial position at the expense of
Bombardier's strategy and intellectual property rights.”
 
 
Appeal Rights
 
If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled and wish to
make a complaint or request a review of our decision, please write to the
Southeastern Company Solicitor, 2^nd Floor, 4 More London Riverside, SE1
2AU, or by email at [1][email address] Your request must
be submitted within 40 working days of receipt of this letter.
 
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 (ICO) can be contacted at
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF or you can contact the ICO through the 'Make a
Complaint' section of their website on this link:
[2]https://ico.org.uk/make-acomplaint/
 
 
Regards
 
Mark Willson
Data Protection and FOIA Officer
southeasternrailway.co.uk
 
southeastern
2nd Floor,
4 More London Riverside,
London, SE1 2AU.
 
 
_____________________________________________
From: Information Rights
Sent: 18 February 2022 09:42
To: Barry Wilson <[FOI #818801 email]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Copies of your automated
announcements scripts.
 
 
Dear Barry Wilson,
 
Re' your FOIA request dated 31st December 2021.
 
I apologise for the delay in responding. Your request required us to
consult with a number of suppliers, some of whom have, or are taking,
legal advice on disclosure of the information requested.
 
I set out below our responses at this point. I will continue the dialogue
with suppliers on any outstanding issues in order to conclude as soon as
is possible.    
 
You requested "the scripts for all of your automated announcements. This
should include the scripts for both your station platform announcements
(Atos Worldline) and your onboard train announcements
(375/376/377/395/465/466/707)."
 
Your request has been handled under the FOIA and I can confirm that we
hold some of the information requested.
 
Station Platform Announcements - We do not hold this information.
Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public
authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to
the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the
Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004. Our supplier Worldline have confirmed the following. "In
order to obtain a standard announcement script for your managed stations,
you would need to ask Worldline to compile such a script. Compilation and
provision of this script falls outside of the usual service agreement;
therefore a cost would be incurred. Worldline can confirm that provision
of the information would exceed the £450 limit." We are therefore unable
to provide this information.
 
Onboard Announcements –
Class 395 Units – This information is not held. This is because it is
coded within systems and is not in a format which can be exported. It
would require us to manually compile information, which we estimate at 4
weeks work. This exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’  set out in section 12 of
the FOIA. (Section 12 of the FOIA Section 12(1) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and sections 4(3) and 4(4) of the ‘Fees Regulations’
2004 allow a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of
determining if the information is held, and then locating, retrieving and
extracting that information would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450.
This figure is equivalent to 18 hours work, at a set rate of £25 an hour.)
 
This information is held. Copies of announcement scripts for the following
classes of rolling stock are held by our supplier BTROS:
375,376,377,465,466. This information is BTROS’s IPR and is copyright
protected. I am awaiting a response from BTROS’s legal advisor on
disclosure and will update you ASAP.
 
We have already released copies of the announcement files which you can
find on this link.
[3]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/o...
 
Appeal Rights
 
If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled and wish to
make a complaint or request a review of our decision, please write to the
Southeastern Company Solicitor, 2^nd Floor, 4 More London Riverside, SE1
2AU, or by email at [4][email address] Your request must
be submitted within 40 working days of receipt of this letter.
 
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 (ICO) can be contacted at
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF or you can contact the ICO through the 'Make a
Complaint' section of their website on this link:
[5]https://ico.org.uk/make-acomplaint/
 
 
Regards
 
Mark Willson
Data Protection and FOIA Officer
southeasternrailway.co.uk
 
southeastern
2nd Floor,
4 More London Riverside,
London, SE1 2AU.
 

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