Kier Highways Road Maintenance

The request was refused by Shropshire Council.

Dear Shropshire Council,

16/10/2017 was awarded a seven year contract valued at £147m to provide highways services across Shropshire for Shropshire Council. I ask to be provided the following information about this:

1. A copy of the contact insofar as it relates to claiming costs for repairs from at-fault third parties and:
a. The protection the contract affords Third parties from excessive charging
b. The obligations placed on the contractor to provide information to third parties

2. The Service Level Agreement for Kier’s response to emergency incidents; the time from notification to attendance

3. Whether debris clearance, if the only ‘damage’ arising following an emergency incident, is a chargeable event to the council

4. The coverage Kier are to provide for attending emergency incidents, the provision of their Asset Incident watchmen (AIW’s) i.e. whether this is 24/7 or otherwise and

a. whether the service agreed is one of employed (AIW) staff on duty 24/7 or a standby service. If the latter, at what times are standby staff agreed to be operating.
b. What times do AIW’s operate i.e. the information in the Council’s possession of the hours AIW’s are on duty, employed and on the road (as opposed to at home on standby).
c. The number of AIW’s employed within the Council’s road network

5. Whether the council are to be charged a multiplier on hours worked by Kier Highways operatives where Kier’s operatives work outside 8am to 5pm of a non-holiday weekday and if so, the rates applied or minimum charges incurred.

6. The schedule of charges agreed with Kier Highways for services and

a. Where there is no culprit for your contractor to claim from, do the Council make payment to the contractor either directly or as part of a lump-sum agreement?
b. If the charges to the Council, are by use of a fee for an item (staff, plant and materials) and an uplift / overhead, please advise the latter.

7. The basis of any annual increase in charges to the Council by the contractor

Yours faithfully,

Mr P Swift

FOI, Shropshire Council

Dear Mr Swift

 

Thank you for your request for information received on 18/10/2017.  We are
currently processing your request in accordance with the relevant
legislation.

 

You have requested details about the contract for Highways Maintenance
with Kier.

 

(Please note this may be a summary of your request and full details, as
outlined in the request, will be sent to the team providing the response.)

 

If you feel the information is inaccurate or requires amendment, please
notify us as soon as possible using the contact details provided below. 

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Governance Team

Shropshire Council

Shirehall

Abbey Foregate

SHREWSBURY

SY2 6ND

 

Tel:                  01743 252179 / 252774 / 252747

Email:             [Shropshire Council request email]

Web:               [1]www.shropshire.gov.uk/access-to-information

 

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/access-to-i...

George Candler, Shropshire Council

9 Attachments

Dear Mr Swift

 

Please find below and attached a response to your FOI request.

 

1. A copy of the contact insofar as it relates to claiming costs for
repairs from at-fault third parties and:

                a. The protection the contract affords Third parties from
excessive charging

                b. The obligations placed on the contractor to provide
information to third parties

 

Shropshire Council will, whenever possible, attempt to recover the costs
from third parties that have caused damage to Council property. This
process is undertaken entirely by Council employees or, if necessary,
solicitors/debt collectors acting on the behalf of the Council. The role
of the Shropshire Council's Highways Term Maintenance Contractor is only
to undertake the physical works required to repair/replace damaged assets
or provide resources (e.g. Traffic Management) to an incident. Shropshire
Council will pay the Contractor for these works and then recover all
eligible costs from the third party. There is no requirement in the
contract for the contractor to provide information directly to third
parties; this will be undertaken by Shropshire Council as supporting
evidence in recovering costs.

 

The Contractor is only able to request payment from the Council for
measured items contained in the contract Price List. There is no
differentiation in the Contractor’s rates between non-rechargeable works
and works that the Council can recover costs from a third party.
Shropshire Council staff are responsible for ensuring that all works
undertaken by the Contractor have been completed as instructed and payment
authorised in accordance with the Council polices.

               

 

2. The Service Level Agreement for Kier’s response to emergency incidents;
the time from notification to attendance

               

This is exempt from disclosure under Section 22 of the Freedom of
Information Act – Intended for Future Publication. A public version of the
contract is being prepared and will be available on the Shropshire Council
website by the end of the year at the link below: 

 

[1]https://shropshire.gov.uk/open-data/data...

 

 

3. Whether debris clearance, if the only ‘damage’ arising following an
emergency incident, is a chargeable event to the council

 

The process for instructing the Contractor to undertake works is by means
of Task Orders for which the Council is then required to reimburse the
Contractor from the list of items contained within the Price List. The
Contractor is entitled to payment for all Task Orders, regardless of the
size or nature of work involved.

 

 

4. The coverage Kier are to provide for attending emergency incidents, the
provision of their Asset Incident watchmen (AIW’s) i.e. whether this is
24/7 or otherwise and

                a. whether the service agreed is one of employed (AIW)
staff on duty 24/7 or a standby service.  If the latter, at what times are
standby staff agreed to be operating.

                b. What times do AIW’s operate i.e. the information in the
Council’s possession of the hours AIW’s are on duty, employed and on the
road (as opposed to at home on standby).

                c. The number of AIW’s employed within the Council’s road
network

 

The Contractor is paid a monthly amount, known as the Basic Facility, to
have available sufficient resources to comply with contract Clauses 170AR,
Series 7900 and Clause 7970AR (as detailed in Q2 reply) and be able to
respond to an incident 24 hours/day, 365 days/year.

 

With regard to Questions 4b and 4c, the council does not hold this
information. It is for the Contractor to determine the number of staff
required to comply with the contract.

 

 

5. Whether the council are to be charged a multiplier on hours worked by
Kier Highways operatives where Kier’s operatives work outside 8am to 5pm
of a non-holiday weekday and if so, the rates applied or minimum charges
incurred.

               

                The pricing is separated into the following four price
bands and is used to determine the cost of a Task Order.

·         During Normal Working Hours Without Restrictions

·         During Normal Working Hours With Restrictions

·         Outside Normal Working Hours Without Restrictions

·         Outside Normal Working Hours With Restrictions

 

A public version of the contract is being prepared and will be available
on the Shropshire Council website by the end of the year at the link
below. Further detail is therefore exempt from disclosure under Section 22
of the Freedom of Information Act – Intended for Future Publication.

[2]https://shropshire.gov.uk/open-data/data...

 

6. The schedule of charges agreed with Kier Highways for services and

                a. Where there is no culprit for your contractor to claim
from, do the Council make payment to the contractor either directly or as
part of a lump-sum agreement?

                b. If the charges to the Council, are by use of a fee for
an item (staff, plant and materials) and an uplift / overhead, please
advise the latter.

 

The majority of pricing details fall within exemption S43 of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 - Commercial Interests, as disclosure of this
information may prejudice the commercial interests of the Council in our
ability to negotiate favourable rates in the future. In determining
whether it serves the interests of the public better to withhold or to
disclose the information, we believe that disclosure of detailed
information of this nature is more likely to prejudice the commercial
interests of the Council than benefit the public by its disclosure. It is
therefore our view that the public interest in maintaining the exemption
outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

 

Any pricing details within the contract that are not commercially
sensitive will be available when a public version of the contract is made
available on the Shropshire Council website later this year. It is
therefore exempt from disclosure under Section 22 of the Freedom of
Information Act – Intended for Future Publication.

[3]https://shropshire.gov.uk/open-data/data...

 

In the meantime, please find attached an extract from the Price List of
the items included in the Emergency Response section (see attached
"DMCH012 - Price List (Emergency Response)". Any materials used by the
Contractor whilst dealing with an emergency response are included within
the specific work category (eg: street lighting, carriageway patching,
sand bags) and will be charged accordingly.

 

 

7. The basis of any annual increase in charges to the Council by the
contractor

               

This is exempt from disclosure under Section 22 of the Freedom of
Information Act – Intended for Future Publication. A public version of the
contract is being prepared and will be available on the Shropshire Council
website by the end of the year at the link below: 

 

[4]https://shropshire.gov.uk/open-data/data...

 

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 this letter is a
part refusal notice to your request.  If you are dissatisfied with the way
your request has been handled, you may ask for an internal review. Please
contact The Information Governance Team, Legal and Democratic Services,
Shropshire Council, Shirehall, Shrewsbury, SY2 6ND or email on
[5][Shropshire Council request email] if you wish to request a review. 

 

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.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:  Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF. You can find more details at [6]www.ico.org.uk or by telephone on
0303 123 1113.

 

Regards, George

 

George Candler

Director of Place and Enterprise

5^th Floor, The Shirehall

Abbey Foregate

Shrewsbury

SY2 6ND

 

01743 258671

 

Email:            [7][Shropshire Council request email]

Web:               [8]www.shropshire.gov.uk/access-to-information

show quoted sections

FOI, Shropshire Council

 

Dear Mr Swift 

 

Further to your request for an internal review of your request for
information , please find our response below.

On 13 October 2017, you asked for information relating to the Council’s
contract with the Kier. From 1 April 2018 Kier will be responsible for
highways maintenance, highways projects, maintenance of bridges and
structures and emergency responses.

 

The council responded on 7 November and refused detailed pricing schedules
as we considered them to be exempt from disclosure under Section 43 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Commercial Interests.

 

On 13 November, you asked for an internal review of the decision to refuse
the information.

 

We have reconsidered your request and made further enquiries based on the
additional information you supplied. The outcome of this review is that we
still consider that detailed pricing schedules relating to this contract
are exempt from disclosure under Section 43 of the Freedom of Information
Act – Commercial Interest.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of this internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:  Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF. You can find more details at www.ico.org.uk or by telephone on 0303
123 1113.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Governance Team

Shropshire Council

Shirehall

Abbey Foregate

SHREWSBURY

SY2 6ND

 

Tel:                  01743252179 / 252774 / 252747 

Email:             [Shropshire Council request email]

Web:               [1]www.shropshire.gov.uk/access-to-information

 

 

 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/access-to-i...

Dear FOI,

thank you. I have presented the issue to the ICO:

'I am asking for a decision in respect of my refused request at:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/k...

the correspondence also appears in the attached zip file

I do not accept that the information is ‘commercially sensitive’, I do nto believe I have been given adequate reasons (that there has been adequate consideration) and I understand a similar matter involving Highways England has resulted in HE withdrawing the section 43 exemption. '

Yours faithfully,

Mr P Swift

Mr P Swift left an annotation ()

From: new casework [mailto:acknowledgemen[@]ico.org.uk]
Sent: 01 December 2017 14:54
To: P Swift
Subject: We have received your email

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