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Copy of Schedule A of the Service Agreement that sets out the nature and extent of the exclusive rights granted to Translink through the October 2015 Service Agreement.

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Dear Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland),

The Translink Service Agreement and Commercial Bus Service Permit scheme were introduced pursuant to Public Passenger Transport (Service Agreements and Service Permits) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015.

The Public Passenger Transport (Service Agreements and Service Permits) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 were pursuant to the Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 and Regulation (EC) No. 1370/2007.

The Service Agreement (Oct 2015), through which the Department directly awarded exclusive rights to Translink to operate its bus and rail services, is therefore clearly subject to both the Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 and Regulation (EC) No. 1370/2007.

The Department is required by the legislation to establish in advance and set out in an objective and transparent manner the nature and extent of any exclusive rights granted through any Service Agreement.

The Service Agreement states “The Department has decided that the Holding Company shall provide the public passenger transport including bus and rail services on the networks as set out in Schedule A and in accordance with the conditions herein.”

I would like the following information provided:

1. A full copy of Schedule A of the Service Agreement; and

2. Any further information the Department holds in relation to the nature and extent of the exclusive rights granted to Translink by the Department through the October 2015 Service Agreement.

Yours faithfully,

Owen McLaughlin

Dear Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland),

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland)'s handling of my FOI request 'Copy of Schedule A of the Service Agreement that sets out the nature and extent of the exclusive rights granted to Translink through the October 2015 Service Agreement.'.

I have received no acknowledgement or response to my FOI request. The Response to this request is delayed. My request is for a simple copy of a document that the Department should have at hand and therefore be readily accessible. In any event, by law, Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland) should normally have responded promptly and by 25 September 2020.

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

Yours faithfully,

Owen McLaughlin

DFI PTDDSO, Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland)

1 Attachment

Mr. McLaughlin,

 

Please see attached.

 

Thanks

 

Geraldine Finnegan

Public Transport Division, Department for Infrastructure

Room 3-29

Clarence Court

Belfast

BT2 8GB

Telephone: 028 9054 0077

Email: [1][email address]

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Dear Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland),

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland)'s handling of my FOI request 'Copy of Schedule A of the Service Agreement that sets out the nature and extent of the exclusive rights granted to Translink through the October 2015 Service Agreement.'.

Your response states:

2) "A copy of Schedule A as at October 2015, as requested, is not held by the
Department."

The response provided lacks any credibility. The Service Agreement directly awarded Translink exclusive rights to public transport services within Northern Ireland and associated revenue and financial support totalling somewhere in the region of £800m over the 5 years of the contract.

The Department is required by the legislation to establish in advance and set out in an objective and transparent manner the nature and extent of any exclusive rights granted through any Service Agreement.
The Service Agreement states “The Department has decided that the Holding Company shall provide the public passenger transport including bus and rail services on the networks as set out in Schedule A and in accordance with the conditions herein.”

It is the schedules which lay out the detail of the scope in any legal contract. For the Department to try to claim that it simply does not have a copy of Schedule A of a 'live' contract involving hundreds of millions of pounds in tax-payers' money is simply staggering.

The Department needn't need reminding that Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 specifically states "Directly awarded public service contracts should be subject to greater transparency." I would suggest retaining a copy of the schedule that details the scope of the contract is an entry-level requirement to transparency. If the Department does not hold a copy of Schedule A how can it possibly ensure any effective implementation of the agreement?

I would like the Department to provide a copy of Schedule A as at October 2015, as requested.

I would also like to draw your attention to 2 numbered points in the response I was provided with. (Both numbered as 1)

"1) The service agreement confers exclusive rights to all services included in
the public service agreement. The cross border services do not have
exclusive rights as demonstrated by the competing services currently
running." [A]

"In response to these new requests, I can confirm that:
1) You were already supplied with a copy of the most recent Schedule A of
the service agreement on 11th August 2020 as part of a previous request." [B]

It is difficult to express how frustrating it is to receive a response like this. Point [A] confirms i ) "The service agreement confers exclusive rights to all services included in the public service agreement"; and ii) The cross border services do not have exclusive rights as demonstrated by the competing services currently
running." Therefore, cross-border services are outside the service agreement as they do not have exclusive rights. Therefore, as they are outside the Agreement, cross-border services will not be listed in Schedule A.

Yet Point B then states that the 'most recent' copy of Schedule A of the service agreement was provided to me on 11th August 2020. Firstly, their is no such thing as a 'most recent' copy of the Schedule to any signed, live contract it is either the schedule that formed part of the contract or it is something else. What was provided was simply a list of Ulsterbus services the origin of which was unclear but could not have been Schedule A of the Service Agreement

In addition to the cross-border services point above, within my note on 11 August 2020, I went to some length explaining that there appeared to be a significant number of services in the list supplied that would not seem to meet the definition of Public Passenger Transport Services as defined in Section 1(4) Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 and, therefore, be the type of service that a Service Agreement ought to cover. (Including but not limited to Private Hire, Specials, Tours, Shuttle Services, etc). Again, these services could not have at any time been included within Schedule A of any Service Agreement. The points made have simply been ignored.

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

I would like the Department to provide a copy of Schedule A as at October 2015, as requested.

Yours faithfully,

Owen McLaughlin

DfI Information Management Unit, Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland)

Dear Mr McLaughlin

 

Thank you for your email, relating to the email response provided to your
recent information request (DFI/2020-0225).

 

This email also included the DfI response to your supplementary questions,
for explanations of the response provided by the Department, arising from
DFI/2020-0181. 

 

The DfI Departmental Information Manager will provide a response as soon
as possible.

 

Hugh Murnaghan

DfI Information Management Unit

 

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DfI Information Management Unit, Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland)

2 Attachments

Dear Mr McLaughlin

 

Please see the attached, issued on behalf of the DfI Departmental
Information Manager.

 

Thank you.

 

Hugh Murnaghan

DfI Information Management Unit

We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Owen McLaughlin please sign in and let everyone know.