FOI/EIR Information request
Our reference: 27816677

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Dear requester,
 
Freedom of Information Act 2000
 
In line with the FOI Act, we require your full name before we can proceed
with your request.
 
I will not be able to take this matter further without this extra
information from you. Please let me know by 29/11/2023.
 
If I do not hear from you within the timeframe provided, I shall take it
that you do not wish to pursue this request and will consider the request
closed. 
 
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
Information Rights Team
London Borough of Newham - People at the Heart of Everything We Do
[1][Newham Council request email]
 
 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.
 
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FOI/EIR Information request
Our reference: 27816677

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Dear Irvine Looms
 
Thank you for your request for information received on 15 November 2023.
 
Please find attached our response to your request.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Information Rights Team
[1][Newham Council request email]
 
 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.
 
Disclaimer
This email contains proprietary confidential information some or all of
which may be legally privileged and/or subject to the provisions of
privacy legislation. It is intended solely for the addressee.
If you are not the intended recipient, an addressing or transmission error
has misdirected this e-mail; you must not use, disclose, copy, print or
disseminate the information contained within this e-mail. Please notify
the author immediately by replying to this email.
Any views expressed in this email are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender specifically states these to be the views of the
London Borough of Newham
This email has been scanned for all viruses and all reasonable precautions
have been taken to ensure that no viruses are present. The London Borough
of Newham cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the use of this email or attachments.

References

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FOI/EIR Information request
Our reference: 29740045

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Dear Irvine Looms
 
Thank you for your request for information received on 21 January 2024.
 
Please find attached our response to your request.
 
Yours sincerely
Information Rights Team
[1][Newham Council request email]
 
 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.
 
Disclaimer
This email contains proprietary confidential information some or all of
which may be legally privileged and/or subject to the provisions of
privacy legislation. It is intended solely for the addressee.
If you are not the intended recipient, an addressing or transmission error
has misdirected this e-mail; you must not use, disclose, copy, print or
disseminate the information contained within this e-mail. Please notify
the author immediately by replying to this email.
Any views expressed in this email are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender specifically states these to be the views of the
London Borough of Newham
This email has been scanned for all viruses and all reasonable precautions
have been taken to ensure that no viruses are present. The London Borough
of Newham cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the use of this email or attachments.

References

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FOI/EIR Information request
Our reference: 29769641

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Dear Irvine Looms
 
Freedom of Information Act 2000
 
Thank you for your request for information that was received on 17
February 2024.
 
We are dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 and we aim to send a response by 19 March 2024.
 
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 may restrict the release of some or
all of the information you have requested. We will carry out an assessment
and if any exemptions apply to some or all of the information you have
requested we will advise you accordingly in our response.  We will also
provide you with details of how you may appeal (if appropriate).
 
Should you require anything further please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely

Information Rights Team
[1][Newham Council request email]
 
 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.
 
Disclaimer
This email contains proprietary confidential information some or all of
which may be legally privileged and/or subject to the provisions of
privacy legislation. It is intended solely for the addressee.
If you are not the intended recipient, an addressing or transmission error
has misdirected this e-mail; you must not use, disclose, copy, print or
disseminate the information contained within this e-mail. Please notify
the author immediately by replying to this email.
Any views expressed in this email are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender specifically states these to be the views of the
London Borough of Newham
This email has been scanned for all viruses and all reasonable precautions
have been taken to ensure that no viruses are present. The London Borough
of Newham cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the use of this email or attachments.

References

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1. mailto:[Newham Council request email]

 
 
FOI/EIR Information request
Our reference: 29769641

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Dear Irvine Looms
 
Thank you for your request for information received on 20 February 2024.
 
Please find attached our response to your request.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Information Rights Team
[1][Newham Council request email]
 
 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.
 
Disclaimer
This email contains proprietary confidential information some or all of
which may be legally privileged and/or subject to the provisions of
privacy legislation. It is intended solely for the addressee.
If you are not the intended recipient, an addressing or transmission error
has misdirected this e-mail; you must not use, disclose, copy, print or
disseminate the information contained within this e-mail. Please notify
the author immediately by replying to this email.
Any views expressed in this email are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender specifically states these to be the views of the
London Borough of Newham
This email has been scanned for all viruses and all reasonable precautions
have been taken to ensure that no viruses are present. The London Borough
of Newham cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the use of this email or attachments.

References

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1. mailto:[Newham Council request email]

 
 
FOI/EIR Information request
Our reference: 29769641

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Dear Irvine Looms
 
Thank you for your request for a review received on 19 March 2024. We are
sorry that you are dissatisfied with our attempts to handle your request
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
 
We can confirm that we are considering your concerns and we will aim to
provide you with a response by 18 April 2024. There may be circumstances
where more time is required. If this is the case, we will contact you to
explain and provide a reasonable timescale.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Information Rights Team
[1][Newham Council request email]
 
 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.
 
Disclaimer
This email contains proprietary confidential information some or all of
which may be legally privileged and/or subject to the provisions of
privacy legislation. It is intended solely for the addressee.
If you are not the intended recipient, an addressing or transmission error
has misdirected this e-mail; you must not use, disclose, copy, print or
disseminate the information contained within this e-mail. Please notify
the author immediately by replying to this email.
Any views expressed in this email are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender specifically states these to be the views of the
London Borough of Newham
This email has been scanned for all viruses and all reasonable precautions
have been taken to ensure that no viruses are present. The London Borough
of Newham cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the use of this email or attachments.

References

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Dear Irvine

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Internal Review

Subject: ICT Contracts 

I write following your request for an Internal Review of the Council’s
response to your enquiry for information held by the Council under the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Initial Request made under current Case Reference: 29769641

Direct Follow on from FOI Ref 27816677 / 29740045

LBN Response

3. Who selected KORA for invite, who interviewed them?

We can confirm we hold this information but is exempt under
Section 40

1.  As you are unable to provide the name of the individual, please
provide the role of the individual(s), which is not exempt who
selected and interviewed KORA (including members of staff who have
left the organisation either Newham or Havering)

Given that the roles requested are likely to be associated with individual
employees, we consider that from the disclosure of the job roles requested
it would also effectively identify individuals and therefore this
would also be exempt under Section 40(2).

As previously advised, the names of individual employees is their
own personal data; and disclosure would contravene upholding the data
protection principles staff expect from their employer and is exempt under
section 40(2) and section 40(3A).

2.  How was this organisation selected as they have no digital footprint,
website, phone number and by whom (role as names are exempt)?
(including members of staff who have left the organisation either
Newham or Havering)

Track record of providing services to other Local Authorities,
Government and statutory bodies.

3.  Which roles were part of the interview panel?(including
members of staff who have left the organisation either Newham or
Havering)

Given that the roles requested are likely to be associated with
individual employees, we consider that from the disclosure of the job
roles requested it would effectively identify individuals and therefore
this would be exempt under Section 40(2).

Disclosure would contravene the upholding of data protection
principles staff expect from their employer, in the protection of their
personal data and is exempt under section 40(2) and section 40(3A).

The pre-contract award phase generally involves the core stages of
pre-tendering - defining the requirement, developing the specification,
producing a business case and tendering - market engagement, bidder
selection and bidder evaluation. This phase ends in the award of
a contract.

4.  The above details are those that we require and also which other
organisations were invited to tender. We are also well aware of the
procurement processes within Local Authorities and as such are aware that
a procurement waiver would have to have a specification as to why the
waiver is being raised as opposed go progressing through the
normal procurement routes.

A contract waiver award is required and a competition process was
not possible due to an unforeseen emergency involving immediate risk to
persons, property and of serious disruption to Council services. Due to
the severity of the risks pertaining to both the Cyber Security stance and
the lack of Technical Assurance on large scale procurements, urgent
professional advice was sought from a subject matter expert. The urgency
and criticality of the situation meant that the decision was made to on
board Kora consulting to mitigate these severe risks to the Council via
the contract waiver process.

Given the emergency nature of the issues, undertaking a lengthy
procurement process to identify a partner would have represented a
significant material risk to the customer facing operations of the
council. The Council would have also been unable to adequately
respond to the Cyber Security threats.

5.  Finally, could you provide the details of all the roles that
were involved in the creation of the procurement waiver (current /
past).

Given that the roles requested are likely to be associated with
individual employees, we consider that from the disclosure of the job
roles requested it would effectively identify individuals and therefore
this would be exempt under Section 40(2).

Disclosure would contravene the upholding of data protection
principles staff expect from their employer, in the protection of their
personal data, and is exempt under section 40(2) and section 40(3A).

Your reason for requesting an Internal Review

I am writing to request an internal review of Newham Borough Council's
handling of my FOI request 'ICT Contracts and suppliers / procurement:
21802914'.

Whereas previously the roles of the person(s) undertaking activities has
been made available, it is becoming increasingly frustrating that this
information is not being provided. Please provide the information
requested and also please be aware that we have contacted the corporate
leadership team, including the Chief Executive in relation to the vague
and lack of responses.

Also it is of note that the organisation was selected due to a previous
track record. Once more, as this organisation does not have any digital
presence, how was this determined and we also note that the information in
relation to whom selected this organisation has not been provided.

Based upon the previous response, this organisation was selected due to
the need of a Technical Architect to provide speciality security advice,
fill out a document for the PSN, build a remediation plan and review the
cyber budget. The latest response uses the narrative that there was an
urgent issue that required resolving, which seems peculiar as your
contracts register shows that you have a dedicated cyber security
organisation (Strip OLT) that provides these services. Whilst this is a
rhetorical question, why would certain individuals have taken the
following actions:

- Not used the existing provider who would surely know more of your
environment?

- Used an organisation that has NO track record anywhere digitally that
demonstrates the capabilities required

- Found this organisation in the first instance

- Take great lengths to prevent this information being provided?

Further email received states:  It can be shown from the following Freedom
of Information responses that this information has previously been
provided including the name of the individual. Exemptions have not
previously been made in response to requests for this information.
Furthermore, from the exemption is station that the name of an individual
can be inferred from providing the role of the person(s). Assumptions are
not valid reasons for applying an exemption and as previously stated,
Newham have provided this information previously therefore rendering the
exemption invalid.

Findings

I have reviewed the response sent to you and the reasons given by you as
to why you are dissatisfied with the response.

Following my review I am of the opinion that s40(2) and s40(3) exemption
have been correctly applied in this instance.  

The data requested is personal data as defined in the Data Protections Act
2018 (DPA 2018) section 3:

3(2) “Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or
identifiable living individual.

3(3) “Identifiable living individual” means a living individual who can be
identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to –

(a)  an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data
or an online identifier, or

(b) one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic,
mental, economic, cultural or social identity of the individual.

In providing the role of the employee/s means that an identifiable living
individual can be identified indirectly in accordance with section 3(3) of
the DPA 2018.

Disclosure of employee data to a member of the public would also
contravene one of the data protection principles in accordance with
Article 5(1)(a) of the DPA 2018

“Personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent
manner in relation to the data subject”.

As part of my review I am of the opinion that the disclosure of the
information is not necessary and does not hold any relevance to the FOI
request in its entirety.

The names of individual employees is their own personal data; and
disclosure would contravene upholding the data protection principles staff
expect from their employer and therefore s40(2) and s40(3)(a) has been
correctly engaged

In conclusion your appeal is not upheld.

Please see our response below to further questions raised within your
request for the internal review:

- Not used the existing provider who would surely know more of your
environment? – Information not held - this question does not fall under
the scope of the freedom of information Act.

- Used an organisation that has NO track record anywhere digitally that
demonstrates the capabilities required -  Information not held - this
question does not fall under the scope of the freedom of information Act.

- Found this organisation in the first instance – This information has
already been provided

- Take great lengths to prevent this information being provided? -
Information not held - this question does not fall under the scope of the
freedom of information Act.

It can be shown from the following Freedom of Information responses that
this information has previously been provided including the name of the
individual. Exemptions have not previously been made in response to
requests for this information. Furthermore, from the exemption is station
that the name of an individual can be inferred from providing the role of
the person(s). Assumptions are not valid reasons for applying an exemption
and as previously stated, Newham have provided this information previously
therefore rendering the exemption invalid. – Each FOI is considered on a
case by case basis and no one set blanket policy applies to all. If
exemptions are applied in one situation they may not be appropriate in
another.

Should you remain dissatisfied with this response you have the right to
contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at:
[1]https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/

Please quote the reference number 29769641 in any future communications.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact
us [2][email address]

Kind regards

Angie

Angela Harding | Senior Information Governance Officer

Information Assurance

one source - working on behalf of Havering and Newham councils

[3]covid-logo

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

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This email and any attachments are intended for the addressee only and may
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The information contained in this email may be subject to public
disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless this
information is legally exempt from disclosure the confidentiality of this
email and your reply cannot be guaranteed. Email is not considered a
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Thank you for your email. 

We will aim to respond to you as soon as we can but as we are experiencing
a high level of demand on our resources at this time this may take us
longer than our usual two working days but no longer than four working
days.

If your enquiry is urgent please email us again providing your deadlines.

Kind regards

The Information Governance Team

oneSource
Second Floor West, Newham Dockside, 1000 Dockside Road, London E16 2QU

oneSource – working on behalf of Havering and Newham councils
[1]www.onesource.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter: @onesourceUK

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

This communication is sent by oneSource on behalf of the London Borough of
Havering or the London Borough of Newham. The views expressed in it are
not necessarily the views of any of the councils.

This email and any attachments are intended for the addressee only and may
be confidential. Any unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or alteration
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please
use the reply function to inform us and then permanently delete the email.

The email has been scanned for viruses before it was sent and on leaving
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routinely monitored for compliance with the councils’ policies on the use
of electronic communications. Action may be taken against any malicious or
deliberate attempts to infect the councils’ networks.

The information contained in this email may be subject to public
disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless this
information is legally exempt from disclosure the confidentiality of this
email and your reply cannot be guaranteed. Email is not considered a
secure medium for communication and we advise that you understand and
accept this lack of security when communicating with us by email.

Privacy Notice can be found on our website Data Protection
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Dear Irvine

Thank you for your email.

We have provided you with the information we hold and that does not fall under an exemption.

Following the conclusion of my internal review I stated that the next steps were to contact the ICO if you were still dissatisfied with our response. I understand that you have contacted the ICO and we will engage with them when they make contact with us.

Kind regards

Angie

Angela Harding | Senior Information Governance Officer
Information Assurance

one source - working on behalf of Havering and Newham councils

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