IT Support Services

The request was partially successful.

Dear Medical Research Council,

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

I would like to request the following breakdown of the council's hardware maintenance and costs:

A list of the models of the physical servers, storage devices, tape libraries, network switches and routers under support contracts; as well as the cost and duration of said contracts, with start and end dates and service level associated with the equipment. Could you also supply the names of the suppliers of aforementioned support services?

I would also request the name of the person/s in your organisation responsible for the maintenance support contracts.

Yours faithfully,

John Wicker

Dear Mr Wicker,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request.

We will look into what information we have available and get back to you.

Yours Sincerely,

Tiffany

Tiffany Lay
Senior Information Officer
Medical Research Council

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Dear Mr Wicker,

Thank you for you Freedom of Information request.

I would like to request the following breakdown of the council's
hardware maintenance and costs:

A list of the models of the physical servers, storage devices, tape
libraries, network switches and routers under support contracts; as
well as the cost and duration of said contracts, with start and end
dates and service level associated with the equipment. Could you
also supply the names of the suppliers of aforementioned support
services?

I would also request the name of the person/s in your organisation
responsible for the maintenance support contracts.

About the MRC
The Medical Research Council (MRC) is a publically funded organisation
dedicated to improving human health through world-class medical research.
We support research across the entire spectrum of medical sciences, from
fundamental laboratory-based science to clinical trials, and in all major
disease areas, in universities and hospitals, in our own units and
institutes in the UK, and in our units in Africa. The MRC employs over 4,500
staff (including locally-employed staff overseas) in our 25 research units
and three institutes across the UK, in our two research units in The Gambia
and Uganda, and in our Head Office locations (we operate a dual site Head
Office based in London and Swindon).

IT service provision across the MRC
Arrangements for the provision of the services which are the subject of your
request vary across the different MRC sites. For the MRC's head office
services are provided under contact from LogicaCMG and by the RCUK Shared
Services Centre Ltd. Information on service provision across other MRC
locations is dependant on the site as some units are stand-alone facilities
while others are embedded within university departments. Information
relating to the different elements of IT service provision is not held
centrally in an easily accessible and comparable form so I will address
these three elements separately:

Services provided by LogicaCMG
IT services for the MRC head offices in Swindon and London are outsourced to
LogicaCMG. Services are provided by LogicaCMG under a 10-year contract which
started in 2003 and is due to end in 2013. Spend on the contract with
LogicaCMG for head office was £3,839,274 for 2010/11, the budget for 2011/12
is £3,298,475. The contract with LogicaCMG is structured around packages
and we do not hold information on spend against the support for physical
servers, storage devices, tape libraries, network switches and routers.

The MRC does not hold a list of the models of the physical servers, storage
devices, tape libraries, network switches and routers under support
contracts. This information is also not held centrally in any
data/information store by LogicaCMG. The information can be collated from
the source items, however, to do so would exceed the £450/18 hour free
period under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). LogicaCMG
have confirmed that there are a total of 93 physical servers and 63 virtual
servers used.

Services provided by the RCUK Shared Services Centre Ltd
The seven research councils, working together as RCUK established a Shared
Services Centre, RCUK SSC Ltd, to deliver services in Human Resources,
Finance, Procurement and Grants administration. This also includes the
provision of IT Information Systems to deliver these services to all of the
Research Councils, including the MRC's head office, research units and
institutes.

The total support cost per year for the physical servers, storage devices,
tape libraries, network switches and routers associated with the provision
of these services is £186k. The research councils have agreed to share the
costs of RCUK SSC Ltd., with the MRC's agreed share being 26.98 per cent.
This makes the MRC's share of these costs £50k.

The MRC are currently considering whether some of the detailed information
you have requested relating to the equipment you have identified is exempt
from disclosure under the FOIA Section 43(2). This exemption states:
"Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would,
or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person
(including the public authority holding it)." This is a qualified exemption
and we are currently considering the Public Interest Test associated with
the application of this exemption. The MRC will contact you shortly with
the outcome of this.

Services within MRC units and institutes
Information relating to the different elements of IT service provision is
not held centrally. To identify and collate the information that you have
requested from across the MRC's units and institutes would exceed the
£450/18 hour free period under section 12 of FOIA.

Responsibility for Maintenance Contracts
The MRC's Chief Information Officer, Victoria Cassely, is responsible for
maintenance contracts relating to IT/IS services.

I hope that you find this information useful and that this response
addresses the issues you wished to raise. If you have any questions, or
would like any further information, please let me know.

However, if you are not satisfied that this response has been handled
appropriately, you may appeal using the MRC's complaints procedure. Details
are on the MRC website at:
www.mrc.ac.uk/index/about/about-contact/.... You
may contact the MRC Complaints Officer by email at
[email address] or write to The Complaints Officer,
Medical Research Council, 14th Floor, One Kemble Street, London WC2B 4AN.

If, following the Complaints Officer's reply, you remain dissatisfied, you
may contact the Information Commissioner. Details of how to take your
complaint further are at www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.

Yours Sincerely,

Tiffany Lay

Tiffany Lay
Senior Information Officer
Medical Research Council

www.mrc.ac.uk

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1 Attachment

Dear Mr Wicker,

Further to my response of 23 February 2012, I can confirm that I have now
considered the Public Interest Test regarding the detailed information that
you requested that relates to the RCUK Shared Service Centre Ltd.

I can confirm that the Medical Research Council holds the information you
requested. However we are withholding some of this information since we
consider that the exemption under section 43(2) applies to it. This is the
exemption for Commercial Interests. In all the circumstances of the case,
the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public
interest in disclosing the information.

I have attached the information that can be released to you in the Excel
file "SSC information as at 22_02_2012".

I hope that you find this information useful, if you have any questions, or
would like any further information, please let me know.

However, if you are not satisfied that this response has been handled
appropriately, you may appeal using the MRC's complaints procedure. Details
are on the MRC website at:
www.mrc.ac.uk/index/about/about-contact/.... You
may contact the MRC Complaints Officer by email at
[email address] or write to The Complaints Officer,
Medical Research Council, 14th Floor, One Kemble Street, London WC2B 4AN.

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:
The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.gov.uk

Yours Sincerely,

Tiffany

Tiffany Lay
Senior Information Officer
Medical Research Council

www.mrc.ac.uk

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