Dear Mr Bishop,

Oxford City Council – Reference: 10359

Thank you for your email. Your request was received on 18th August 2021 and you will be sent a response within 20 working days (of receipt) in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000/ Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), subject to the information not being exempt or containing reference to a third party.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recognises the unprecedented challenges all are facing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In particular they understand that resources, whether they are finances or people, may be diverted away from usual compliance or information rights work. Whilst the ICO can’t extend statutory timescales, they will not be penalising public authorities for prioritising other areas or adapting their usual approach during this extraordinary period.

Therefore while the Council will make every effort to comply with the Statutory Requirements you may experience understandable delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic.

Yours sincerely

Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer

Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS | Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance. Get tested if you have symptoms.

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Dear Mr Bishop

Oxford City Council – Reference: 10359

Further to the acknowledgement below, I can respond to your Freedom of
Information Act 2000 request received on 18^th August 2021 as follows:

Is Oxford Investigation Service a Separate company of Oxford city council
or is it just a team in Oxford city council; Name the clients Oxford
Investigation Services have had over the last 5 years; list how much money
Oxford investigation Services have received for delivering its services
over the last 5 years; What is the budget surplus generated by the work of
Oxford Investigation services for the city council (and the rate payers of
the city).

- The Oxford Investigation Service is the trading name of the Oxford City
Council Counter-Fraud Team.

- Some of the clients that the Oxford Investigation Service has worked
with in the last 5 years can be found in the publicly available Audit and
Governance Committee reports using this link -
[1]https://mycouncil.oxford.gov.uk/ieListMe...

Commercially sensitive information regarding some clients does not feature
and is not subject to release.

- The trading income figure for the Oxford Investigation Service for the
last 5 years is outlined in the aforementioned reports

- The budget surplus generated by the work of the Oxford Investigation
Service is a commercially sensitive figure.

Section 43 – Commercially sensitive information.

(1)    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).

Under s.1 (1) (a) of the FOIA I can confirm that the Council does hold
client information and budget surplus information however the Council
considers that this data is commercially sensitive,

The Council considers that to provide this information would be likely to
prejudice the Council.

Public Interest test

Section 43 of FOIA is a qualified exemption and I have therefore applied
the public interest test under section 2(2)(b) FOIA i.e. is there a
greater public interest in providing the information or in maintaining the
exemption?

I have considered the Awareness Guidance No. 5 and the Annexe to the
Guidance issued by the Information Commissioner.

It is my view that the public interest is weighted in favour of
maintaining the exemption as the information is confidential and
commercially sensitive to the Council and persons concerned.  The
reasoning behind this decision is that to release the information would
seriously affect the business potential for the Investigation Service and
risk breaching supplier /client confidentiality. It would also be
inappropriate to divulge budget surplus - Divulging this information could
reveal confidential charging models, if calculated against team costings.
The charge made to client organisations is tailored to each one
independently, based on a number of factors. It would be inappropriate to
divulge this charge or even the collective income figure to which it
contributes as it would risk breaching the supplier / client
confidentiality agreement. This would have the potential to affect the
position of the Council as a supplier of these services.

For your information, this email constitutes a Refusal Notice under
section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and an exemption under
section 43(2) the Act is being applied.

If you disagree with any part of the response to your request, you are
entitled to ask the Council for an internal review of the decision(s)
made.  You may do this by writing to the Monitoring Officer, by either
email – [2][email address] – or by post to Monitoring Officer, Oxford
City Council, St Aldate’s Chambers, St Aldate’s, Oxford, OX1 1DS.  After
the result of the internal review, if you remain dissatisfied, you may ask
the Information Commissioner to intervene on your behalf.  You may do this
by writing to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Sal Bartlett | Information Governance Administrator| Law & Governance |
SA1.2B | Oxford City Council | St Aldates Chambers | St Aldates | Oxford |
OX1 1DS |

For any Data Protection queries please send the email directly to the
[3][email address] mailbox

Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.

Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.

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