Dear Mr Wilkinson,

Thank you for your enquiry by email dated 30 March 2020 under The Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Your enquiry is being dealt with and The Royal Parks will aim to reply to
your enquiry within 20 working days, commencing from 31 March 2020, the
next working day after receipt.                

If you have any questions pertaining to this enquiry or require further
assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. My contact details are
listed below.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin Gribbon | Records Manager | 0300 061 2002 |
[1][email address]
[2]www.royalparks.org.uk | The Old Police House | Hyde Park | London | W2
2UH

The Royal Parks are: Bushy Park | The Green Park | Greenwich Park | Hyde
Park | Kensington Gardens | The Regent's Park & Primrose Hill | Richmond
Park | St James's Park
The Royal Parks is registered in England and Wales: Company Registration
No: 10016100 Registered Charity No: 1172042

Registered Offices: The Old Police House, Hyde Park, London. W2 2UH

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Disclaimer

The information contained in this communication from the sender is
confidential. It is intended solely for use by the recipient and others
authorized to receive it. If you are not the recipient, you are hereby
notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking action in
relation of the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and
may be unlawful.

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References

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Our reference: FOI 20/12

Dear Mr Wilkinson,

Thank you for your email of 30 March 2020 in which you asked:

Could you advise when the current facilities management or hard services
(M&E) contracts are due to expire and their estimates annual value?

When would expect these to go to market for competitive tender?

The current contract is due to expire in September 2021. We do not have a
date as yet for when the next competitive tender will take place.

We have not disclosed here the details of the current spend on the
contract under section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act and we
would like to explain the reasons and context for this.

The Royal Parks (TRP) is now a charity which has changed from being an
agency fully financed by central government to one which is part-funded by
government and which needs to self-generate the majority of our income.
TRP has to engage in commercial activity so that we can continue to
maintain public open spaces and deliver our charitable objects.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) considers that participating
in a tendering process is a commercial activity, because the procurement
is a competitive process by which service suppliers are selected to
deliver a service. The FOI Act does not explicitly define ‘commercial
interests’ but we have followed the precedent laid down by a tribunal
decision which states that “commercial interest relates to a person’s
ability to participate competitively in a commercial activity i.e. the
purchase and sale of goods or services”.

Section 43(2) is a qualified exemption and we have therefore considered,
whether in all the circumstances of our business, the public interest in
maintaining that exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing it.
We have concluded that it does and that disclosing this particular piece
of information would prejudice the commercial interests of TRP.

In reaching this conclusion, the considerations in favour of releasing the
individual price information include the general public interest and
accountability and the legitimate public interest in the activities of
TRP. We also considered that as a charitable public organisation receiving
monies from government, that there is a public interest in scrutinising
whether public funds are being used in an efficient and effective way.

Against release of the price information are a number of key
considerations, including the strong public interest in protecting TRP
from commercial prejudice. As TRP is now a charity with a smaller fee for
service from government substantially outweighed by commercial income, any
reduction in our income or increase in our costs will have a direct impact
on our work and would undermine our ability to deliver our charitable
objectives for the benefit of the public.

We are keen to ensure that potential bidders for contracts with TRP are
not discouraged from tendering for contracts by a justified fear that
their commercially confidential information in the form of how much TRP
will pay for their services, or receive from them from income-generating
activities, will be released publicly and potentially have an impact on
their market positions and commercial standing. This would have the
potential impact of diminishing our supplier base and reducing the quality
and price that TRP is able to contract for.

This would cause real harm to TRP’s commercial interests; most of our
services and activities are out-sourced and we therefore tender for a
large number of contracts each year. The financial arrangements of the
contract, including the price that the bidder offers, is part of the key
evaluation criteria and an important means by which we are able to
distinguish and evaluate the merit of the tender in order to arrive at the
most advantageous bid. Therefore if we were to disclose the  pricing part
of each contract, the competitiveness of future selection processes and
our ability to achieve best value would be hindered, thus harming our
commercial interest.

I hope that this information satisfies your request.

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 email, quoting the reference at the top of the page and should be
addressed to:

FOI Officer

The Royal Parks

The Old Police House

Hyde Park

London

W2 2UH

Email [1][The Royal Parks request email]

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, quoting the reference at the top of the page. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Gavin Gribbon | Records Manager | 0300 061 2002 |
[2][email address]
[3]www.royalparks.org.uk | The Old Police House | Hyde Park | London | W2
2UH

The Royal Parks are: Bushy Park | The Green Park | Greenwich Park | Hyde
Park | Kensington Gardens | The Regent's Park & Primrose Hill | Richmond
Park | St James's Park
The Royal Parks is registered in England and Wales: Company Registration
No: 10016100 Registered Charity No: 1172042

Registered Offices: The Old Police House, Hyde Park, London. W2 2UH

P Please consider the environment before printing this mail

Disclaimer

The information contained in this communication from the sender is
confidential. It is intended solely for use by the recipient and others
authorized to receive it. If you are not the recipient, you are hereby
notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking action in
relation of the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and
may be unlawful.

This email has been scanned for viruses and malware, and may have been
automatically archived by Mimecast Ltd, an innovator in Software as a
Service (SaaS) for business. Providing a safer and more useful place for
your human generated data. Specializing in; Security, archiving and
compliance. To find out more [4]Click Here.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[The Royal Parks request email]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://bit.ly/YL2eik
4. http://www.mimecast.com/products/