Dear North East Procurement Organisation,

You have recently disclosed:

"Under the NEPRO(2) Framework Agreement, Bloom Procurement Services
Ltd is required to provide NEPO with Key Performance Indicator information
and Management Information relating to the activity under the Framework
Agreement.

NEPO contractually has the ability to monitor the performance on the Neutral
Vendor against all of the specified KPIs within the Framework Agreement.

However these measures are one element of what is used to identify and
monitor the performance of a contract or supplier, in cases where a supplier
or contract is performing well, all of these mechanisms may not be fully
deployed or required to be reported during the lifetime of the contract term.

Alternatively, if areas of the contract are underperforming or supplier
performance issues are raised, NEPO has the ability to fully deploy all of the
reporting mechanisms assigned and agreed within the Framework
Agreement.

NEPO understands and recognises the additional costs associated with
reporting for suppliers, including the increase in manhours and resource
needed to develop and maintain these performance records, therefore for
each contract NEPO applies a logical and proportionate approach to the
monitoring of supplier activity against the KPIs into the Framework
Agreements.

Under the NEPRO(2) Framework Agreement the following KPIs are available:
- SPS Projects delivery against budget.
- Evidence of any savings achieved through SPS Projects.
- SPS Provider day rates.
- SPS Projects delivery against timescales.
- Scope creep avoidance.
- Volume of SME’s engaged/successful.
- Volume of local SME’s engaged/successful.
- Contracting Authorities Local Suppliers/SMEs used.
- Post SPS Project Contracting Authority satisfaction.
- Time taken to pay SPS Providers upon receipt of invoice.
- On time Management Information.
- Accredited SPS Provider audit.
- Adherence to agreed process for Accreditation.
- Adherence to agreed process for Engagement and Appointment.
- Framework usage by North East Contracting Authorities.
- Volume of SPS Projects advertised via the NEPO Portal.
- IR35 mitigation

Under the NEPRO(2) Framework Agreement Bloom Procurement Services
Ltd may also be required to provide the following Management information for
reporting and monitoring purposes:

- Contracting Authority name.
- SPS Providers invited to participate in engagement process.
- Appointed SPS Provider.
- Engagement Process evaluation information.
- Project title.
- Call-Off Contract agreed date.
- SPS Project start date.
- SPS Project end date.
- Planned SPS Project duration.
- Planned SPS Project budget.
- Actual SPS Project cost.
- SPS Project savings."
==========================================================================

For the contract between Ignite and Taunton Deane and West Somerset Councils (leading to the formation of the new Somerset West and Taunton Council), I would like all of the above KPI and Management information for that contract.

Yours faithfully,

Dave Orr

Dear North East Procurement Organisation,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of North East Procurement Organisation's handling of my FOI request 'For the Ignite contract with Taunton Deane and West Somerset Councils pls supply KPIs etc'.

I believe that ICO guidance on outsourcing and performance information (link below) would give NEPO information access rights over contract information held by their appointed framework supplier Bloom to access failed contract performance information in the public interest i.e. Bloom hold information on behalf of NEPO.

The NEPO procurement framework agreement should not be used to allow secrecy of contract performance information to be hidden from taxpayers by using Bloom as a publicly appointed intermediary to hide public interest information.

The ICO Guidance is on outsourcing and information access is here:

https://ico.org.uk/media/1043530/outsour...

"Deciding whether information is held

In dealing with FOIA requests about outsourcing, a key issue is
deciding what information is held by the public authority.
Information is held by a public authority if it holds it to any extent
for its own purposes. Information is also held by a public authority,
in terms of FOIA, if the contractor or another party holds it on
behalf of the authority. There should be an objective basis for
deciding what information is held on behalf of the authority. The
contract is the main source to use to decide this. However, it is
necessary to take account of all the circumstances of the case.

Transparency by design

We recommend that public authorities adopt a transparency by
design approach to outsourcing. This means they should:

• Make arrangements to publish as much information as
possible, including the contract and regular performance
information, in open formats with a licence permitting re-use
• When drawing up the contract, think about any types of
information that the contractor will hold on their behalf eg
information that a public authority would reasonably need to
see to monitor performance. Describe this in an annex to the
contract. This is itself potentially in scope of a FOIA request.
• Set out in the contract the responsibilities of both parties
when dealing with FOIA requests. Look at standard contract
terms (eg the Model Services Contract ) for guidance.
• Identify any potentially sensitive information and what FOIA
exemptions may need to be considered in the event of a
request. Record this in a working agreement with the
contractor.
• If necessary, carry out a transparency impact assessment to
help with these steps. Involve other stakeholders as
appropriate."

====================================================================================

The Ignite-led transformation was a highly publicised failure (overall losses est.£10m) which only came to light after the old Taunton Deane and West Somerset Councils ceased to exist and a new Somerset West and Taunton Council came into being and reviewed the Ignite-led failed project. The old councils no longer exist to meet FOI requests - hence this request to NEPO for the contract performance information.

https://ukcampaign4change.com/2019/06/19...

https://leveller.live/2020/01/13/slapped...

https://liddellgrainger.org.uk/constitue...

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,

Dave Orr