Value for Money

The request was successful.

Dear Brent Borough Council,

I note from your response to a previous FOI request that Brent Council is giving between £50k and £100k to a company called Corelogic to develop its Frameworki software.

My question relates to value for money.

To date I have had replies from the following authorities in relation to this matter :

Manchester
Wandsworth
Worcestershire
Bracknell Forest
Camden
East Lothian
Haringey
Scottish Borders
Tower Hamlets

These authorities have all been asked to 'invest' between £10k and £50k in this project. Some have accepted and some have declined.

My questions are as follows :

1. As Brent Borough Council is committed to paying considerably more than other local authorities into this project, what price comparison process did you undertake to ensure that Brent Borough Council would achieve value for money?

2. Has the Council already paid Corelogic?

3. Is there an opportunity for the Council to renegotiate this price? If so, will you take such an opportunity?

Yours faithfully,

Michael Woods

Stephen F Williams, Brent Borough Council

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Brent Council - INFORMATION REQUEST

Our Reference: 802372
====================================================

Dear Mr. Woods

I am writing to respond to the request for information that you made on
11^th July and to apologise for the delay in responding.
The responses to the questions you asked are set out below.

1. Is a local authority permitted, under English and EU law, to
invest, in advance, in an undeveloped product with a specific
company? I will be happy with a response which points me either to
Brent Council's Standing Orders, if these clarify the matter, or to
an appropriate public body's guidance (eg EU or OGC).

The first part of this question appears to be a request for an opinion
about the application of the law as opposed to a request for recorded
information relating to the contract you refer to. The purpose of the
Freedom of Information Act is to provide access to recorded information.
If such a general opinion were recorded and held by the Council it would
be subject to the right of access set at sections 1(1) (a) and (b) of the
Act, but the understanding is that this information is not held.

You say that you will be happy if we can appoint you to guidance that
clarifies the matter. We have taken the view that what you are entitled to
in these circumstances would be the type of guidance that you could expect
from a knowledgeable librarian who was able to guide you to the types
information held by the Council that might be relevant to these
questions. These are attached.

We have limited this to internal guidance materials on the basis that
general guidance materials on the law are reasonably accessible to you in
the normal way and are exempt from disclosure in accordance with Section
21 of the Act.

2. At what level was this decision taken? Specifically, what was
the job role of the most senior Officer involved in the
decision-making process related to this Corelogic investment, and
what was the role of the most senior Elected Member involved in the
decision-making process?

The information held has already been disclosed to you. Please see the
response to request 797632.
If you are dissatisfied with the response or how the Council has handled
your request you can complain to the Council by writing to the following
address: IT Standards Manager at Brent Council,Floor 5, 349-357 High Road,
Wembley HA9 6BZ, telephone 020 8937 1402, e-mail [Brent Borough Council request email]. It is
the Council's policy to ensure that, where practicable, your complaint is
dealt with by someone who was not involved in the original decision.

You also have a right of appeal about our decision to the Information
Commissioner, however, the Information Commissioner will not normally
consider an appeal until you have exhausted your rights of redress and
complaint to the Council. The Information Commissioner can be contacted as
follows:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF; Telephone: 01625 545 700,
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
BRENT ITU

--
The use of Brent Council's e-mail system may be monitored and
communications read in order to secure effective operation of the system
and other lawful purposes.

Dear Stephen F Williams,

Many thanks for this, but you have answered the previous foi request rather than this one. It's funny when ronnie barker does it. Could you please answer these questions?

Yours sincerely,

Michael Woods

Stephen F Williams, Brent Borough Council

Brent Council - INFORMATION REQUEST

Our Reference: 819366
====================================================

Dear Mr. Woods,

I am writing to respond to the request for information you made on 4th
Agust 2011.

The answers to your questions are as follows.

1) The Freedom of Information Act is concerned with a right to recorded
information. The recorded information about the procedures applied to
this process were disclosed to you in the response to 802372.

2) Yes.

3) No.

Please note that the information provided may be subject to copyright and
you may require further permission from the Council to re-use it. If you
require further guidance please write to the IT Standards Manager (contact
details below).

If you are dissatisfied with the response or how the Council has handled
your request you can complain to the Council by writing to the following
address: IT Standards Manager at Brent Council,Floor 5, 349-357 High Road,
Wembley HA9 6BZ, telephone 020 8937 1402, e-mail [Brent Borough Council request email]. It is
the Council's policy to ensure that, where practicable, your complaint is
dealt with by someone who was not involved in the original decision.

You also have a right of appeal about our decision to the Information
Commissioner, however, the Information Commissioner will not normally
consider an appeal until you have exhausted your rights of redress and
complaint to the Council. The Information Commissioner can be contacted as
follows:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF; Telephone: 01625 545 700,
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

BRENT ITU

[Brent Borough Council request email]

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The use of Brent Council's e-mail system may be monitored and
communications read in order to secure effective operation of the system
and other lawful purposes.

Michael Woods left an annotation ()

We finally got there. Still doesn't explain why Brent has to pay more than everybody else though.