Telecommunications and IT Infrastructure

The request was successful.

Dear Northern Trains Limited,

Concerning the summary of this request, could you please answer the following questions:

Telephony and UC/Collaboration
1. When is your contract renewal date?
2. Please confirm the incumbent supplier(s) names.

Contact Centre
1. When is your contract renewal date?
2. Please confirm the incumbent supplier(s) names.

Connectivity and Network Services
1. When is your contract renewal date?
2. Please confirm the incumbent supplier(s) names.

Infrastructure
1. Who is your infrastructure (structured cabling, electrical services) provider?
2. When is your contract renewal date?

IT Consumables
1. Who provides your hardware, laptops, notebooks, desktops, servers, non-managed equipment, licences, IT consumables?
2. When is your contract renewal date?

Mobiles
1. When is your contract renewal date?
2. Please confirm the incumbent supplier(s) names.

I truly believe this is a reasonable request and addresses the following potential objections:

1. The cost of retrieving it would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ that is set out in section 12 of the FOIA.
I understand that Section 12 of the FOIA Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and sections 4(3) and 4(4) of the ‘Fees Regulations’ 2004 allow a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of determining if the information is held, and then locating, retrieving and extracting that information would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450.00. This figure is equivalent to 18 hours work, at a set rate of £25.00 an hour, and supplying the above would be in line with (or lower) than this measure.

2. Safeguarding National Security
I understand that you are designated a provider of Critical National Infrastructure, and subject to the NIS Directive (“The Directive”). The information requested is not sufficiently detailed to enable an actor to determine and potentially exploit security vulnerabilities because I seeking supplier names and contract end dates only. Therefore there is no risk of an exploit impeding your ability to operate essential services, adversely affecting public safety and is not contrary to your obligations under the Directive.

3. Prejudice to Commercial Interests
Disclosure of the supplier names and contract end dates of systems and services would not prejudice the commercial interests of you as a Public Authority and therefore could not cause suppliers to behave differently regarding future tenders. This would therefore not be to the detriment of public finances.

Yours faithfully,

Fred Isaacs

SMB - FOI, Northern Trains Limited

Dear Fred

As this request is substantially identical to your previous request made on 12/08/22 that we responded to on 12/09/22, and there has been no material change in the circumstances and reasoning behind our decision, we will not be accepting this as a valid Freedom of Information request, and reiterate that your request has been declined under sections 12, 24, 43, 40 and 41.

Regards

FOI, Northern

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Dear FOI,

Thank you for your speedy response.

Unfortunately, I must dispute your response as follows:

1.
Refusal justification:
Request is substantially identical to my previous request made on 12/08/22 that we responded to on 12/09/2022.
FIsaacs response:
This does not feel correct - my initial request contained 37 questions and my new request contained 12 questions (a 67.5% reduction against the original request). Forgive me if I'm mistaken and if so please advise how my new request is substantially identical to my previous request.

2.
Refusal justification:
There has been no material change in the circumstances and reasoning behind our decision, we will not be accepting this as a valid Freedom of Information request and reiterate that your request has been declined under sections 12, 24, 43, 40 and 41.
FIsaacs response:
This does not feel correct - there has been a significant and material change in the circumstances due to the significant reduction in questions and the nature of the questions. I truly believe that this reduced request is reasonable and addresses the outlined potential objections as follows (again forgive me if I'm mistaken and if so please advise if/how so):
- Section 12: Supplying responses to the significantly reduced number of questions would be in line with (or lower) than the ‘appropriate limit’ measure of £450.00 (derived from 18 hours work, at a set rate of £25.00 an hour).
- Safeguarding National Security: The information requested is not sufficiently detailed to enable an actor to determine and potentially exploit security vulnerabilities because I am seeking supplier names and contract end dates only. Therefore there is no risk of an exploit impeding your ability to operate essential services, adversely affecting public safety and is not contrary to your obligations under the Directive.
- Prejudice to Commercial Interests
Disclosure of the supplier names and contract end dates of systems and services would not prejudice the commercial interests of you as a Public Authority and therefore could not cause suppliers to behave differently regarding future tenders. This would therefore not be to the detriment of public finances.

Yours sincerely,

Fred Isaacs

SMB - FOI, Northern Trains Limited

1 Attachment

Please find attached our response to your request.

Regards

FOI, Northern

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Dear SMB - FOI,

Many thanks for this information, it is incredibly helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Fred Isaacs