Procurement team structure

The request was refused by Peterborough City Council.

Dear Peterborough City Council,

Please can you tell me how your procurement service is structured.

Can I have the
1) procurement job descriptions for existing and vacant procurement roles. I understand these are part of Serco but the roles themselves relate to PCC delivery and should be available to the public domain and therefore not commercially sensitive.
2) The salary bands for the above roles. Again these are recruited and not specific so not commercially sensitive.
3) Number of procurement staff delivering solely or in part to the PCC authority. Again this is part of the PCC budget so is not commercially sensitive.

Yours faithfully,

Clancy Wiggam

FOI Team, Peterborough City Council

Dear Clancy Wiggam 
This is a courtesy email to let you know your Public Information
Request has been received on : 14/12/2018. 
Your unique reference number is "CRN1812610609 ". Please keep this
number safe, as you may be required to provide it in the future. 
Regards,
Customer Service Team

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Dear FOI Team,

Can you please respond

Yours sincerely,

Clancy Wiggam

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Peterborough City Council

Dear Clancy Wiggam,
Thank you for your email dated 6th January, enquiring about our response
to your FOI request of 14th December. This is currently sitting with our
partners Serco and we are due to provide a response on or before 17th
January 2019.

If you have any queries or concerns then please do not hesitate to contact
us.

Thank you
Kind regards
FOI TEAM
Information Governance
Peterborough City Council
Sand Martin House
Bittern Way
Fletton Quays
Peterborough
PE2 8TY
Contact details:
Kevin Taylor, Access to Information Officer - 01733 452576
Tracey Chapman, Access to Information Officer - 01733 863889 (Tues, Wed &
Fri)
Sadaf Abdullah, Access to Records Officer - 01733 864668
Tracey Wright, Information Manager - 01733 452533
Ben Stevenson, Data Protection Officer on 01733 452387 (non-working day
Wed)
Emma Doran, 
Business Support Officer - 01733 453571
Email: [1]f[2][email address
To find out more about Peterborough City Council please go to
[3]www.peterborough.gov.uk. 
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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"FOI Team" <foi@peterborough.gov.uk>, Peterborough City Council

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST  CRN1812610609     

 

Dear Sir / Madam,

 

Your request for information, with reference number CRN1812610609 has
now been considered and the information requested is given below.

Information Request: Dear Peterborough City Council,

Please can you tell me how your procurement service is structured. 

Can I have the 
1) procurement job descriptions for existing and vacant procurement
roles. I understand these are part of Serco but the roles themselves
relate to PCC delivery and should be available to the public domain
and therefore not commercially sensitive.

2) The salary bands for the above roles. Again these are recruited
and not specific so not commercially sensitive.

3) Number of procurement staff delivering solely or in part to the
PCC authority. Again this is part of the PCC budget so is not
commercially sensitive.

        

Our Response:

The Procurement Service is delivered via an outsourced managed
contract with our partners Serco and as such the Council does not
have access to this level of detail. The Managed service contract
commenced on 1st October 2009 and will end on 30th September 2020.

Serco Ltd are a private company, and not subject to Freedom of
Information requests. As a private company, Serco Ltd is not bound by
the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and therefore
the requested information will not be disclosed. 
  

 

       

Re-use of information

You may re-use any documents supplied for your own use, including for
non-commercial research purposes. The documents may also be used for
news reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for example by
publishing the documents or issuing copies to the public will require
the permission of the copyright owner, where copyright exists.  Such
a request would be considered separately in accordance with the
relevant Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 and is
not automatic.  Therefore no permission is implied in the re-use of
these documents, until such a request for re-use has been made and
agreed, subject to any appropriate conditions. 

 

You may re-use any dataset included in this response (excluding
logos) free of charge, in any format or medium, under the terms of
the Open Government Licence v2.0. To view this licence, visit
the [1]National Archives website or
email [2][email address].  Where we have identified
any third-party copyright information, you will need to obtain
permission from the copyright holders concerned.  Users reproducing
Peterborough City Council content without adaptation should include a
source accreditation to Peterborough City Council: Source:
Peterborough City Council licensed under the Open Government Licence
v.2.0.  Users reproducing content which is adapted should include a
source accreditation to Peterborough City Council: Adapted from data
from Peterborough City Council licensed under the Open Government
Licence v.2.0.

 

If you have any queries or concerns then please do not hesitate to
contact me.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request please
contact the Information Specialist, Peterborough City Council, Town
Hall, Bridge Street, Peterborough, PE1 1HG; Telephone: 01733 452533,
e-mail: [3][Peterborough City Council request email]

 

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner at:

            The Information Commissioner's Office

            Wycliffe House, Water lane

            Wilmslow, Cheshire

            SK9 5AF

            Tel: 01625 545700

[4]http://www.ico.org.uk/

 

Yours faithfully

 

Tracey Wright

Information Specialist

Peterborough City Council

Town Hall

Peterborough

PE1 1HG

 

foi[5]@peterborough.gov.uk

Telephone 01733 452533

ref:_00Db0eVBc._5000X1dACBm:ref

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Dear Peterborough City Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Peterborough City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Procurement team structure'.

I do not accept that Peterborough Council have no information of its own concerning roles of their procurement team and that they just pay Serco for the service at whatever value. Peterborough must have an idea about how their procurement team is delivered and this is not commercially sensitive detail. I will escalate this further if no information is provided. I would like to know why Peterborough have no idea what Serco are being paid for given the expense to the taxpayer.

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,

Clancy Wiggam

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Peterborough City Council

Freedom of Information Response (No CRN 1812610609) Internal Review
Request

 

Dear Clancy Wiggam,

 

Thank you for your email of 8^th January 2019, regarding our response to
your Freedom of Information request.

 

A senior manager or legal advisor who was not involved in the original
request will now carry out an internal review. We aim to handle simple
internal reviews in 20 working days, in this case by 5^th February 2019.
We aim to handle internal reviews that involve complex issues that require
further investigation and those that require consideration of the public
interest test, in 40 working days.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the internal review of our decision, or an
internal review was not available, you can seek an appeal from the
Information Commissioner by writing to:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office

            Wycliffe House, Water lane

            Wilmslow, Cheshire

            SK9 5AF

            Tel: 01625 545700

[1]www.ico.gov.uk

 

Yours sincerely

 

FOI TEAM
Information Governance
Peterborough City Council
Sand Martin House
Bittern Way
Fletton Quays
Peterborough
PE2 8TY
Contact details:
Kevin Taylor, Access to Information Officer - 01733 452576
Tracey Chapman, Access to Information Officer - 01733 863889 (Tues, Wed &
Fri)
Sadaf Abdullah, Access to Records Officer - 01733 864668
Tracey Wright, Information Manager - 01733 452533
Ben Stevenson, Data Protection Officer on 01733 452387 (non-working day
Wed)
Emma Doran, 
Business Support Officer - 01733 453571
Email: [2]f[3][email address
To find out more about Peterborough City Council please go to
[4]www.peterborough.gov.uk. 
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/
5. http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/emaildisc...

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Peterborough City Council

Dear  Clancy Wiggam,

 

Please find below our response to your request for an internal review.

 

Kind regards

 

INTERNAL REVIEW

 

Re: Freedom of Information Act Request No: 1812610609

 

 

I have now completed the internal review and drafted a response as
follows: -

 

You have requested in your email dated 8^th January 2019 an internal
review. 

 

I can confirm that the Council's legal department have carried out an
internal review. As part of that review, the legal department has seen all
the correspondence relating to your information request and considered the
applicable legislation before providing advice in this matter.

 

This letter forms the Council's formal response to your request for a
review. For ease of reference, the details of the initial request for
information and the Council's response are set out below. I will then
confirm the findings of my review.

 

The Initial Request

 

In your email of 14^th December 2018, you asked for the following
information: -

 

Please can you tell me how your procurement service is structured? 

Can I have the 
1) procurement job descriptions for existing and vacant procurement roles.
I understand these are part of Serco but the roles themselves relate to
PCC delivery and should be available to the public domain and therefore
not commercially sensitive.

2) The salary bands for the above roles. Again, these are recruited and
not specific so not commercially sensitive.

3) Number of procurement staff delivering solely or in part to the PCC
authority. Again, this is part of the PCC budget so is not commercially
sensitive.

 

The Council's Response to the Initial Request:-

 

The Council responded by stating: -

 

The Procurement Service is delivered via an outsourced managed contract
with our partners Serco and as such the Council does not have access to
this level of detail. The Managed service contract commenced on 1st
October 2009 and will end on 30th September 2020.

Serco Ltd are a private company, and not subject to Freedom of Information
requests. As a private company, Serco Ltd is not bound by the provisions
of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and therefore the requested
information will not be disclosed. 

 

Your Request for an Internal Review:-

 

Your request for an internal review was on the following criteria:-

 

Dear Peterborough City Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Peterborough City Council's
handling of my FOI request 'Procurement team structure'.

I do not accept that Peterborough Council have no information of its own
concerning roles of their procurement team and that they just pay Serco
for the service at whatever value. Peterborough must have an idea about
how their procurement team is delivered and this is not commercially
sensitive detail. I will escalate this further if no information is
provided. I would like to know why Peterborough have no idea what Serco
are being paid for given the expense to the taxpayer.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on
the Internet at this
address: [1]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

 

Internal Review Response:-

 

In considering this review, I have had regard to the relevant
documentation and have spoken with relevant officers in Serco Procurement
and Peterborough City Council.

 

I am satisfied that the response to the initial request is appropriate and
that no details relating to Job descriptions and salary bands of Serco
employees may be disclosed, as this is not information which is held by
Peterborough City Council - it is information held by Serco.

 

As stated previously, there is a managed service contract which sets out
the basis and framework of the service provided by Serco to Peterborough. 
Within this Service Contract, the Core Resource days are stated to be
1,785 days per financial year.  A 'day' is defined to be 7.4hrs (7 hours
and 24 mins).  It is a matter for Serco to decide how they deliver against
this contract and the number of staff they will provide to meet the
requirements of the Core Resource days.  Currently I understand that there
are 10 staff within the team delivering the service.

 

Given that the information requested is not information which Peterborough
has access to, I find that we are unable to give any further specific
information as requested, but I hope that the above has provided some more
detail in relation to the way in which the procurement service is
delivered.

 

What happens now?

 

I trust that this response adequately addresses your queries, and I now
consider this matter to be concluded.  However, if you are dissatisfied
with this decision, you may request the Information Commissioner to
investigate.  The contact details are: -

 

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Telephone: 01625 545700

[2]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely 

 

 

Michelle Abbott

Senior Lawyer

Peterborough City Council

 

FOI TEAM
Information Governance
Peterborough City Council
Sand Martin House
Bittern Way
Fletton Quays
Peterborough
PE2 8TY
Contact details:
Kevin Taylor, Access to Information Officer - 01733 452576
Sadaf Abdullah, Access to Records Officer - 01733 864668
Tracey Wright, Information Manager - 01733 452533
Ben Stevenson, Data Protection Officer on 01733 452387 (non-working day
Wed)
Emma Doran, 
Business Support Officer - 01733 453571
Email: [3]f[4][email address
To find out more about Peterborough City Council please go to
[5]www.peterborough.gov.uk. 
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. mailto:[email address]
5. http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/
6. http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/emaildisc...

Dear Freedom of Information Mailbox,

I don't understand how the Council is able to understand the value it is getting from Serco if it doesn't have any detail on its staff. So there are 10 people at the team employed a set number of days. But you are telling me Peterborough do not know what level or job these staff are employed at. They could all be heads of Procurement or paid £100k pa. Please do not tell me you don't have this information or the hierarchy within Peterborough to know who manages the team and who comes under that person and how. Otherwise you are saying that you write cheques that are blank and have no idea what you are getting as a service.

Yours sincerely,

Clancy Wiggam

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Peterborough City Council

Freedom of Information Act Request No: 1812610609 Internal Review

 

Dear Clancy Wiggam,

 

Thank you for your email dated 5^th February 2019 in which you have
queried our response to your Internal Review request of the 8^th January
2019, as detailed below.

 

Internal Review Query

 

I don't understand how the Council is able to understand the value it is
getting from Serco if it doesn't have any detail on its staff. So there
are 10 people at the team employed a set number of days. But you are
telling me Peterborough do not know what level or job these staff are
employed at. They could all be heads of Procurement or paid £100k pa.
Please do not tell me you don't have this information or the hierarchy
within Peterborough to know who manages the team and who comes under that
person and how. Otherwise you are saying that you write cheques that are
blank and have no idea what you are getting as a service.

 

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for a response. As
soon as the information is available I will be in touch with you again, on
or before 5^th March 2019

 

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Yours sincerely

 

FOI TEAM
Information Governance
Peterborough City Council
Sand Martin House
Bittern Way
Fletton Quays
Peterborough
PE2 8TY
Contact details:
Kevin Taylor, Access to Information Officer - 01733 452576
Sadaf Abdullah, Access to Records Officer - 01733 864668
Tracey Wright, Information Manager - 01733 452533
Ben Stevenson, Data Protection Officer on 01733 452387 (non-working day
Wed)
Emma Doran, 
Business Support Officer - 01733 453571
Email: [1]f[2][email address
To find out more about Peterborough City Council please go to
[3]www.peterborough.gov.uk. 
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/
4. http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/emaildisc...

Freedom of Information Mailbox, Peterborough City Council

Dear Clancy Wiggam 
I am writing further to your email dated 5 February 2019, in which you
raised further points regarding the response you had received in relation
to your Freedom of Information request 1812610609.
Details from your email are shown below: 
I don't understand how the Council is able to understand the value it is
getting from Serco if it doesn't have any detail on its staff. So there
are 10 people at the team employed a set number of days. But you are
telling me Peterborough do not know what level or job these staff are
employed at. They could all be heads of Procurement or paid £100k pa.
Please do not tell me you don't have this information or the hierarchy
within Peterborough to know who manages the team and who comes under that
person and how. Otherwise you are saying that you write cheques that are
blank and have no idea what you are getting as a service. 
The Service provided to Peterborough City Council by Serco is managed by a
Serco Head of Service with a team of nine officers to support.  This is a
structure which is decided upon and resourced by Serco.  The cost of the
procurement service contract for 2018/19 is £677k which includes staff
plus Serco overheads and margin in the contract. 
If you remain dissatisfied with this response, you may request the
Information Commissioner to investigate.  The contact details are: -
  
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545700
[1]www.ico.org.uk
Yours sincerely 
FOI TEAM
Information Governance
Peterborough City Council
Sand Martin House
Bittern Way
Fletton Quays
Peterborough
PE2 8TY
Contact details:
Kevin Taylor, Access to Information Officer - 01733 452576
Sadaf Abdullah, Access to Records Officer - 01733 864668
Tracey Wright, Information Manager - 01733 452533
Ben Stevenson, Data Protection Officer on 01733 452387 (non-working day
Wed)
Emma Doran, 
Business Support Officer - 01733 453571
Email: [2]f[3][email address
To find out more about Peterborough City Council please go to
[4]www.peterborough.gov.uk. 
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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References

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1. http://www.ico.org.uk/
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/
5. http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/emaildisc...