PIP Contracts - Management Information Reports

The request was successful.

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

The contracts between the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and
• Atos IT Services UK Limited (Lots 1 and 3) (“ATOS”); and
• Capita Business Services Ltd (Lot 2) (“CAPITA”)

establish a requirement for ATOS and Capita to provide regular management information (“MI”) to the Department.

The section of said contracts, Service Specification FINAL v2.0, state:

“34.2. The Contractor will produce a single report covering all aspects of quality, including performance and complaints, on a monthly basis.

39.1. The Contractor will be responsible for developing management information (MI) reports to support implementation and delivery (see Annex Eight). Please note that additional MI may be included, if required, to cover innovative processes proposed by the Contractor, or if the design of PIP changes.

39.2. The Contractor will supply the Authority with MI monthly (by the 5th working day of each month) and annually (the 5th working day of the next year)."

Request for Information
Therefore, subject to the normal redaction of personal information exempt under the FOIA, please disclose the contractually required monthly reports produced by ATOS and CAPITA for the 3 PIP contracts for the period January 2016 to December 2016 (i.e. the MI reports for the year 2016).

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
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expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
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[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

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Gerald Carzer left an annotation ()

I will be very shocked if you get this but I'll keep my fingers crossed you do

John Slater left an annotation ()

Gerald,
I can't think of an absolute exemption that the DWP could use to turn down my request so if it refuses I imagine it will go to the ICO and probably then the FTT

DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Slater,
 
Please see our response to your recent Freedom of Information request.
 
Yours sincerely
 
DWP Health Services Correspondence Team
 
 

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'PIP Contracts - Management Information Reports'.

Thank you for your response which implies that some of the requested information may be held by the Department. Where the information requested covers a range of dates such as this RFI the Department is still required to disclose what is held. For example if it doesn’t hold information covering the month of December it must disclose the information for January to November.

I remind the Department of the case “Common Services Agency v Scottish Information Commissioner (Scotland) [2008] UKHL 47 (9 July 2008)” Lord Hope (approving Lord Marnoch) stated that FOIA should be construed in as liberal manner as possible.

Section 1(1)(a) FOIA requires the Department to confirm or deny if any of the requested information is held. This means it should have confirmed if the requested information covering any of the specified time period is held. Please do so.

The Department’s response is not complaint with the FOIA and could be considered obstructive.

Assuming that the Department does actually hold some of the requested information please disclose it without further delay.

I remind the Department that the Commissioner requires RFIs to be dealt with within a maximum period of 40 working days (including IRRs). Should the Department fail to disclose the information or cite one of the statutory exemptions by the end of this time period I will complain to the Commissioner.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant
information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
please click on the link below.
 
[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

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DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Slater,
 
Please see our response to your recent Freedom of Information request.
 
Yours sincerely
 
DWP Health Services Correspondence Team
 
 

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'PIP Contracts - Management Information Reports'.

This is not the first time that the Department has claimed that information is not held for it then to be miraculously found and one of the statutory exemptions cited. Such behaviour is incompatible with the FOIA and I will bring it to the attention of the Information Commissioner.

I could provide copious grounds as to why S.43 cannot be engaged by the Department (including the overwhelming pubic interest in favour of disclosure). However, given that I have never known the Department overturn a decision to engage a statutory exemption in response to an IRR it seems a pointless exercise at this stage of the process.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant
information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
please click on the link below.
 
[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

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1. http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...

DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Slater,
 
Please see our response to your recent Freedom of Information request.
 
Yours sincerely
 
DWP Health Services Correspondence Team
 
 

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John Slater left an annotation ()

I have submitted a complaint to the ICO about the DWP engagement of S.43

John Slater left an annotation ()

The ICO issues a decision notice (FS50669301) on 19th December 2017. The DN finds against the DWP and orders disclosure. The dwp has 35 calendar days (until 23/4 January 2018) to disclose the information or 28 days (16 January 2018) to lodge an appeal.

The DWP will appeal this decision.

Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

p39 of the 26 January- 8 February 2018 issue of Private Eye contains an article headlined: "DWP's Crapita excuse" which reports on the way this request has been dealt with.

The article begins: "The Information Commissioner has thrown a spanner in the works at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) thwarting its efforts to keep secret details of the widespread failings of Atos and Capita, the outsourcing giants that carry out disability and health assessments."

The report states: "Since December 2016 disability campaigner John Slater has been trying, via freedom of information rules, to obtain the companies' monthly reports to the DWP, detailing such things as the number of complaints made against assessors, how many assessments fail or succeed, and the average length of time taken for face to face assessments. "

Like most Private-Eye articles this one isn't online, so you'll have to go and buy the magazine (or visit a library) for more!

Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

A further article on this request:

https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/wa...

Myfanwy Nixon left an annotation ()

See if this works - I've added the scan of the article to Google Drive and (I think) made it public: https://drive.google.com/a/mysociety.org...

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'PIP Contracts - Management Information Reports'.

The Department has not responded to my IRR of 29 January 2018 via email. In order to keep a public record of this request I have included a copy of my original IRR below. I have contacted the Commissioner regarding the incomplete and she is going to investigate the matter further.

IRR Sent 29 January 2018
Dear DWP,

Your Ref: FOI 4662, IR8 & IR52

Commissioner's Decision Notice FS50669301

Having reviewed the information disclosed by the DWP it appears that it has not complied with my request for information and the Commissioner’s decision notice.

My original RFI stated:

“The contracts between the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and

Atos IT Services UK Limited (Lots 1 and 3) (“ATOS”); and
Capita Business Services Ltd (Lot 2) (“CAPITA”)

establish a requirement for ATOS and Capita to provide regular management information (“MI”) to the Department.

The section of said contracts, Service Specification FINAL v2.0, state:

“34.2. The Contractor will produce a single report covering all aspects of quality, including performance and complaints, on a monthly basis.

39.1. The Contractor will be responsible for developing management information (MI) reports to support implementation and delivery (see Annex Eight). Please note that additional MI may be included, if required, to cover innovative processes proposed by the Contractor, or if the design of PIP changes.

39.2. The Contractor will supply the Authority with MI monthly (by the 5th working day of each month) and annually (the 5th working day of the next year)."

Request for Information

Therefore, subject to the normal redaction of personal information exempt under the FOIA, please disclose the contractually required monthly reports produced by ATOS and CAPITA for the 3 PIP contracts for the period January 2016 to December 2016 (i.e. the MI reports for the year 2016).”

It is clear that my RFI covers all the regular management information provided to the DWP as required by the 3 contracts held by Capita and Atos (2 contracts).I have compared the disclosed information against Annex 8 of the contract (copy attached)

Of the 29 items prescribed in “Annex 8 – Management Information (Provided by Suppliers)” of the contract the DWP has not disclosed information relating to:

3
7 (partially disclosed by not broken down by categories specified)
17
18
19
20
23
26
28
29

I have not trawled through the data disclosed about the 2 Atos contracts but, on face value, it seems that the problems of missing information could be far worse.

Sadly I have experienced the DWP submitting a subset of what was requested in other requests of mine. When this happens it only comes to light when the information is disclosed. I have notified the Commissioner of the situation as the DWP has clearly failed to comply with her decision notice.

I look forward to the full disclosure of the information I have requested or an explanation as to why it doesn’t exist. I accept that it is possible the DWP didn’t include all of the information specified in “Annex 8 Management Information” and other parts of the contract in the final contracts. However, there is a clear public interest in this also being disclosed as it goes to the competence of the DWP negotiating contracts.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant
information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
please click on the link below.
 
[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...

Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

A mySociety / WhatDoTheyKnow article about this request has been published at:

https://www.mysociety.org/2018/02/13/ato...

John Slater left an annotation ()

For anyone who's interested the link below allows you to download the PIP Management Information (in a zip file) about Atos & Capita that the DWP has disclosed to date:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1t0adI-...

It is this data that the following stories are based on:
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/th...

https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/th...

https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/th...

https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/th...
John

John Slater left an annotation ()

The DWP has supplied some more information following my IRR. However, it has not provided all of the missing Capita data and has ignored the missing Atos data. Rather than continue with multiple IRRs I have contacted the Information Commissioner who will hopefully be able to resolve the problem.

Kerrison Joanna DWP FG HEALTH SERVICES DIRECTORATE, Department for Work and Pensions

Kerrison Joanna DWP FG HEALTH SERVICES DIRECTORATE would like to recall the message, "Freedom of Information request - PIP Contracts - Management Information Reports".

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