FOI Request - Details of DSA tender process and South Yorkshire Airport City Business Cases
Dear City of Doncaster Council
Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, in particular, I am requesting the following information under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the tender process for the operation and/or management of Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
1. Please provide a list of all companies or entities that showed an interest and submitted bids at each stage for the operation and management of DSA during the most recent tender process.
2. Can you disclose which company(ies) was/were awarded the tender for operating DSA but failed to reach agreement?
3. What were the key criteria used in evaluating the participants for the DSA tender?"
4. What qualifications or prerequisites were required for companies to participate in the bidding for DSA?"
5. Were there any declarations of conflict of interest by participants in the DSA tender
6. Please provide the detailed scoring criteria used in the evaluation of bids for the operation and/or management of Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
Can you supply the actual scores or rankings assigned to each bidder during this tender process?
Reasons for Elimination:
7. What were the specific reasons for the elimination of each bidder who did not proceed to the next stage or win the tender?
Were there any particular criteria or thresholds that led to the disqualification of participants?
8. I am also requesting the following documents related to South Yorkshire Airport City prepared under Green Book rules :
1. Strategic Outline Case (SOC)
2. Outline Business Case (OBC)
The most recent and final versions.
Please acknowledge receipt and provide the information within the statutory 20 days.
yours sincerely
Wai M Yau
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Dear Wai M Yau
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request dated 10 February 2025,
for information about the tender process for the operation and/or
management of Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
Please find below City of Doncaster Council’s responses to the questions
you have raised.
Request:
1. Please provide a list of all companies or entities that showed an
interest and submitted bids at each stage for the operation and management
of DSA during the most recent tender process.
2. Can you disclose which company(ies) was/were awarded the tender for
operating DSA but failed to reach agreement?
3. What were the key criteria used in evaluating the participants for the
DSA tender?"
4. What qualifications or prerequisites were required for companies to
participate in the bidding for DSA?"
5. Were there any declarations of conflict of interest by participants in
the DSA tender
6. Please provide the detailed scoring criteria used in the evaluation of
bids for the operation and/or management of Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
Can you supply the actual scores or rankings assigned to each bidder
during this tender process?
Reasons for Elimination:
7. What were the specific reasons for the elimination of each bidder who
did not proceed to the next stage or win the tender?
Were there any particular criteria or thresholds that led to the
disqualification of participants?
8. I am also requesting the following documents related to South Yorkshire
Airport City prepared under Green Book rules :
1. Strategic Outline Case (SOC)
2. Outline Business Case (OBC)
The most recent and final versions.
Response to questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8:
This information is exempt from disclosure under Section 43 of the Freedom
of information Act. Section 43 exempts information from the right of
access under the Freedom of Information Act if disclosure of the
information would prejudice someone’s commercial interests.
The information withheld under the exemption relates to ongoing
negotiations regarding the lease for Doncaster Sheffield Airport, which is
currently subject to a competitive procurement process. City of Doncaster
Council believes that the release of this information would be likely to
cause commercial prejudice to the organisations involved.
As Section 43 is a qualified exemption, City of Doncaster Council is
obliged to consider whether disclosure of the information would be in the
public interest before refusing to supply the information. Therefore, we
have taken the following factors into account:
Factors for disclosing information:
• City of Doncaster council wishes to operate in an open and transparent
way. We recognise that decisions and plans would be of interest to
some members of the public and should be open to accountability.
•
Factors for withholding information:
• disclosure would be likely to adversely affect the companies’
commercial interests, as disclosure of the information may damage the
relationship with the council.
• disclosure would weaken the position of the organisation in a
competitive environment.
• the information could be used by those competitors to gain a
commercial advantage.
Taking these factors into consideration, City of Doncaster Council has
decided that the reasons for withholding the information outweigh those
for disclosing it and we will not be providing the information at this
time. Please note that the Council have a third-party supplier list that
will be shared with the successful bidder and your details have been added
to this.
Response to question 5:
You have asked were there any declarations of conflict of interest by
participants in the DSA tender, I can inform you that all bidders and
members of project team completed declaration of interests, with no
conflicts found.
I hope that this information is useful to you.
City of Doncaster Council estimates that it has cost £49.00 to respond to
this request for information.
Reviewing any decisions made:
If you are not happy with this reply you can ask us to review our
response. To do this write to us within 40 working days of receiving your
response at the address below or email [1][email address]
If you do not agree with the review decision you can apply to the
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a decision about our
compliance or otherwise with the Freedom of Information legislation.
Contact details for the ICO are: Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF. [2]www.ico.org.uk Telephone 0303 123 1113.
Yours sincerely,
Lucy McMahon
Freedom of Information Officer
Corporate Resources
City of Doncaster Council
Phone 01302 736000
Address Civic Office, Waterdale, Doncaster, DN1 3BU
Email [3][email address]
Website [4]www.doncaster.gov.uk
References
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2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. mailto:[email%20address]
4. http://www.doncaster.gov.uk/
Dear Doncaster Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Doncaster Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'FOI Request - Details of DSA tender process and South Yorkshire Airport City
Dear Freedom of Information Team,
I am writing to formally request an internal review of your decision to refuse my Freedom of Information (FOI) request, dated [insert date of refusal letter], regarding details of the failed tender process for Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Your refusal cited Section 43 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, claiming that disclosure could prejudice the commercial interests of the organisations involved. I respectfully challenge this decision and ask that you reconsider your position based on the following points:
The Tender Process is Complete and Failed
The tender process for Doncaster Sheffield Airport has concluded without a successful outcome. As there is no ongoing procurement or active commercial negotiation, the release of information about the process—such as its structure, timeline, or reasons for failure—cannot reasonably be expected to prejudice the commercial interests of any organization. Section 43 is designed to protect active commercial interests, but with the tender having failed, the risk of competitive harm is negligible. I am not seeking commercially sensitive details of individual bids, but rather general information about the process, which should not fall under this exemption.
Public Disclosures Already Made
Some details of the tender process have already been disclosed by Deborah Hogg, Executive Director of Corporate Resources, and Christian Foster, Council Programme Director, during a televised Overview and Scrutiny meeting available on YouTube. These public statements indicate that the council has deemed certain aspects of the process suitable for disclosure without harming commercial interests. This undermines the blanket application of Section 43 to my request, as precedent exists for sharing information about the tender without prejudice. I request that you clarify why my request cannot be similarly fulfilled, at least in part, given these prior disclosures.
Strong Public Interest in Transparency
There is a significant public interest in understanding the circumstances surrounding the failed tender for Doncaster Sheffield Airport, given its importance to the local economy, employment, and the substantial public funds involved. Taxpayers and residents deserve clarity on why the process failed and how decisions were made. The public interest in accountability and transparency outweighs any residual commercial sensitivity, particularly when the tender is no longer active. Under the FOI Act, exemptions like Section 43 require a public interest test, and I believe this test strongly favours disclosure in this case.
I therefore ask that you conduct an internal review of your decision to refuse my request. I would appreciate it if you could reassess whether the requested information—or a redacted version focusing on the process rather than specific bids—can be released without prejudicing commercial interests. Should you uphold the refusal, I request a detailed explanation of how Section 43 applies in light of the points raised above.
Please confirm receipt of this request for an internal review and provide a response within the statutory 20 working days. I look forward to your reconsideration
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/f...
Yours faithfully,
Wai M Yau
Dear Wai M Yau
Thank you for your email.
In order for us to review the response you are referring to it would be helpful if you could supply the reference number for the request. This is the 5-digit number in the subject bar of the emailed response.
Kind regards
Lucy McMahon
Freedom of Information Officer
Corporate Resources
City of Doncaster Council
Phone 01302 736000
Address Civic Office, Waterdale, Doncaster, DN1 3BU
Email [email address]
Website www.doncaster.gov.uk
Dear FOI Appeals,
I would like to help you with that 5 number case but in the response i received, there was no reference number attached.
Yours sincerely,
Wai M Yau
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