Online payment systems
Dear City of London Corporation,
I am conducting research on the technology used by councils to take payments from users of their online services.
Please could you advice me of:
1. What system do you use to take online payments from service users, and who supplies it?
2. When did you start using this system?
3. When does the contract end for this system?
4. What is the annual cost of the system?
5. Where is the system hosted? Please specify if it is hosted by the council in its own data centre, hosted by the council in its own cloud environment (such as AWS or Azure), hosted by the supplier as a discrete instance, or hosted by the supplier as a true software as a service
6. How does the system integrate with the other elements of your online service delivery platform?
If you use more than one solution for online payments, please could you answer the above questions for each of them.
Many thanks!
Yours faithfully,
William Lawrence
Dear William Lawrence,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
The City of London (CoL) acknowledges receipt of your request for information of 23 June 2023.
Public authorities are required to respond to requests within the statutory timescale of 20 working days beginning from the first working day after they receive a request. The Act does not always require public authorities to disclose the information which they hold.
The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and port health authority. The CoL is the local and police authority for the "Square Mile", ie the historic City of London, and not for London as a whole. Please see the following page containing a link to a map (City of London - Interactive Mapping), which shows the local authority area covered by the CoL:
https://www.mapping.cityoflondon.gov.uk/...
The CoL does have some functions, including Port Health Authority functions, which extend beyond the City boundary. For further information please see: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/.
Yours sincerely,
Information Officer
Comptroller & City Solicitor's Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1243
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/
Dear William Lawrence,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
Following your request of 23 June 2023 and our acknowledgement of 26 June 2023, the City of London (CoL) responds as follows.
1. What system do you use to take online payments from service users, and who supplies it?
The City of London can confirm that we us Worldpay to take online payments.
2. When did you start using this system?
We note that this system is engaged on a rolling 12 month contract.
3. When does the contract end for this system?
Please see the above response to question 2.
4. What is the annual cost of the system?
In regard to question 4, this information is considered to be commercially sensitive. Please see the following section 43 (2) exemption statement.
We consider that disclosure of the information may prejudice the commercial interests of the contractor and ourselves. The specific harm which may occur is to the competitive position of the contractor; and to the financial position of ourselves through the harm this may do to our ability to attract tenders from market leaders in the private sector and the confidence of third parties in doing business with us. The CoL finds the likelihood of this occurring more likely than not. It is impossible to imagine that, were this information publicly disclosed, competitors would not take advantage of the information, with consequent considerable harm to the contractor, and to the reputation of the CoL in dealing fairly with contractors.
The section 43(2) exemption is subject to the public interest test. The public interest arguments in favour of disclosure of such information would be:
(i) Facilitating accountability and transparency of public authorities for their procurement decisions.
(ii) Facilitating accountability and transparency in the spending of public money.
Nevertheless, in the view of the CoL the application of the public interest test in relation to the section 43(2) exemption weighs against disclosure. With regard to the disclosure of the specific administration fee, this would have an immediate effect on the competitiveness of a company. It may also encourage companies to undercut the administration fee which may not be sustainable in practice, possibly resulting in unsatisfactory service provision. This would not be in the public interest.
Building up and sustaining competitive advantage can take a considerable amount of entrepreneurial effort. Disclosing what is in effect a contractor's pricing breakdown would have a direct effect on their competitive advantage. The Office of Government Commerce guidance on disclosure of procurement information under the FOIA can be found on the following page:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.u...
With regard to pricing (which can be found under 4(5) of Annex A), we consider that this information remains sensitive, particularly as the contract is still in operation. Unfair competition through disclosure of pricing breakdown is not helpful to the wider economy and therefore is not in the public interest.
5. Where is the system hosted? Please specify if it is hosted by the council in its own data centre, hosted by the council in its own cloud environment (such as AWS or Azure), hosted by the supplier as a discrete instance, or hosted by the supplier as a true software as a service
The City of London can confirm that this system is hosted by the supplier.
6. How does the system integrate with the other elements of your online service delivery platform?
With regard to question 6, we have been unable to gain this information inline with the deadline for this request. Therefore, we would like to extend this element of your request and hope to respond to you by the 28 July 2023 or sooner if possible.
We hope that this response is of assistance.
If you wish to make a complaint about the way the CoL has managed your enquiry, please make your complaint in writing to email address: [email address] For a link to the CoL's FOI complaints procedure, please visit the following page: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback, at the end of which is located the FOI complaints procedure. If, having used the CoL's FOI Complaints Procedure, you are still dissatisfied, you may request the Information Commissioner to investigate. Please contact: Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone: (01625) 545700. Website: http://www.ico.org.uk/.
The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and port health authority; and to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD), which it manages. Subject to any other statutory provisions requiring the CoL to disclose information, release of information outside the scope of the Act is subject to the discretion of the CoL.
The CoL holds the copyright in this communication. Its supply does not give a right to re-use in a way that would infringe that copyright, for example, by making copies, publishing and issuing copies to the public or to any other person. Brief extracts of any of the material may be reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting, subject to an acknowledgement of the copyright owner.
Yours sincerely,
Information Officer
Comptroller & City Solicitor's Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/
Dear William Lawrence,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
Following your request of 23 June 2023 and our acknowledgement of 26 June 2023, the City of London (CoL) responds as follows.
1. What system do you use to take online payments from service users, and who supplies it?
The City of London can confirm that we us Worldpay to take online payments.
2. When did you start using this system?
We note that this system is engaged on a rolling 12 month contract.
3. When does the contract end for this system?
Please see the above response to question 2.
4. What is the annual cost of the system?
In regard to question 4, this information is considered to be commercially sensitive. Please see the following section 43 (2) exemption statement.
We consider that disclosure of the information may prejudice the commercial interests of the contractor and ourselves. The specific harm which may occur is to the competitive position of the contractor; and to the financial position of ourselves through the harm this may do to our ability to attract tenders from market leaders in the private sector and the confidence of third parties in doing business with us. The CoL finds the likelihood of this occurring more likely than not. It is impossible to imagine that, were this information publicly disclosed, competitors would not take advantage of the information, with consequent considerable harm to the contractor, and to the reputation of the CoL in dealing fairly with contractors.
The section 43(2) exemption is subject to the public interest test. The public interest arguments in favour of disclosure of such information would be:
(i) Facilitating accountability and transparency of public authorities for their procurement decisions.
(ii) Facilitating accountability and transparency in the spending of public money.
Nevertheless, in the view of the CoL the application of the public interest test in relation to the section 43(2) exemption weighs against disclosure. With regard to the disclosure of the specific administration fee, this would have an immediate effect on the competitiveness of a company. It may also encourage companies to undercut the administration fee which may not be sustainable in practice, possibly resulting in unsatisfactory service provision. This would not be in the public interest.
Building up and sustaining competitive advantage can take a considerable amount of entrepreneurial effort. Disclosing what is in effect a contractor's pricing breakdown would have a direct effect on their competitive advantage. The Office of Government Commerce guidance on disclosure of procurement information under the FOIA can be found on the following page:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.u...
With regard to pricing (which can be found under 4(5) of Annex A), we consider that this information remains sensitive, particularly as the contract is still in operation. Unfair competition through disclosure of pricing breakdown is not helpful to the wider economy and therefore is not in the public interest.
5. Where is the system hosted? Please specify if it is hosted by the council in its own data centre, hosted by the council in its own cloud environment (such as AWS or Azure), hosted by the supplier as a discrete instance, or hosted by the supplier as a true software as a service
The City of London can confirm that this system is hosted by the supplier.
6. How does the system integrate with the other elements of your online service delivery platform?
Direct feed into the Income Manager System to record the payment.
We hope that this response is of assistance.
If you wish to make a complaint about the way the CoL has managed your enquiry, please make your complaint in writing to email address: [email address] For a link to the CoL's FOI complaints procedure, please visit the following page: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback, at the end of which is located the FOI complaints procedure. If, having used the CoL's FOI Complaints Procedure, you are still dissatisfied, you may request the Information Commissioner to investigate. Please contact: Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone: (01625) 545700. Website: http://www.ico.org.uk/.
The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and port health authority; and to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD), which it manages. Subject to any other statutory provisions requiring the CoL to disclose information, release of information outside the scope of the Act is subject to the discretion of the CoL.
The CoL holds the copyright in this communication. Its supply does not give a right to re-use in a way that would infringe that copyright, for example, by making copies, publishing and issuing copies to the public or to any other person. Brief extracts of any of the material may be reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting, subject to an acknowledgement of the copyright owner.
Yours sincerely,
Information Officer
Comptroller & City Solicitor's Department City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/
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