PIP Contracts - Management Information Reports (2018)

The request was successful.

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

The PIP contracts between the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Atos IT Services UK Ltd (2 lots) (“Atos”), and Capita Business Services Ltd (“Capita”) specify that the both parties must supply the Department with regular management information (“MI”). The periodicity for the “MI” varies, e.g. in some cases it is monthly while in others it appear to be once per year.

The requirement for the MI is prescribed in the Service Specification FINAL v2.0 and associated annexes (11 in total). For the avoidance of doubt the term MI in this request refers to all management information described in the document Service Specification FINAL v2.0, its associated annexes and any changes to MI that may been agreed with Atos and Capita since the contracts became effective. The scope of this request is to include information regardless of periodicity (i.e. it is not limited to that provided monthly).

RFI1 - Please disclose the MI provided to the Department by Capita (Lot 2) and Atos (Lots 1 and 3) that covers the period January 2018 to December 2018. Please note that if any disclosure does not mirror the contractual requirements in Service Specification FINAL v2.0 and its 11 annexes I expect the Department to cite the relevant exemption or explain why this information is not held.

This request is made on the assumption that the Department will carry out relevant redaction of personal information exempt under the FOIA (Section 40 (2)).

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

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

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DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Slater,

 

Please see attached our response to your recent Freedom of Information
Request.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Correspondence Team | Contracted Health & Employment Services | Department
for Work and Pensions

 

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Dear DWP Health Services Correspondence,

Thank you for your response. Having been through this a few times with the Department I will remind it once again of the Commissioner’s published guidance. It states that a public authority should take no longer than 40 days to provide its final response. This includes carrying out a public interest test.

Should the Department repeat previous behavior and cite S.10(3) again on 12 April 2019 then I will of course complain to the Commissioner. Unless the Department can cite exceptional circumstances, the Commissioner will find that it breached the FOIA.

I believe that should the Department cite S.10(3) to delay this request further it would be proof of a pattern of deliberate behavior by the Department that is incompatible with the FOIA. I would then invite the ICO to issue an enforcement notice against the Department to prevent it from abusing the S.10(3) process in the future.

Yours sincerely,

John Slater

no-reply@dwp.ecase.co.uk on behalf of DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

Dear John Slater

The date that the response is due for your request, FOI2019/06760, has
been changed to 15th May

Kind Regards

CHES

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 (2018)'.

I'm sure the Department knows it is "gaming" the system by abusing S.10(3) again. I'm sure it also knows that the ICO will send a letter telling it to issue its response without delay. As this is now a regular feature of how the Department handles RFIs I will be asking the ICO to take enforcement action against the Department when it deals with its inevitable refusal.

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.
 
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If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
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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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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 (2018)'.

In light of the Information Commissioner's letter to the Department, ref FS50836721, I trust that the Department will provide its response without any further abuse of S.10(3) FOIA.

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
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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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no-reply@dwp.ecase.co.uk on behalf of DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear John Slater,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 11th
April.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Dear [email address] on behalf of DWP Health Services Correspondence,

Thank you for your response (IR 2019/14726 ) of 14 May 2019 to my IRR in which the Department claims:
"On 11 April, the department again advised that as the balance of the public interest was still
being considered, a response to your request was due by 15 May. A response in full to your
original FoI request was issued on 8 May. "

Unfortunately none of this is true.

On 11 April the Department stated:
"The date that the response is due for your request, FOI2019/06760, has
been changed to 15th May."

It made no reference to the public interest test or S.10(3).

In respect of the Department's claims that a full response was issued on 8 May 2019 this is again untrue. The Department has not issued a full response and remains in breach of the FOIA.

As the Department has confirmed that I have completed its complaints process I will refer the matter to the Commissioner who, based on previous cases, will take a dim view of the Department's behaviour.

Yours sincerely,

John Slater

Department for Work and Pensions

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DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

Dear Mr Slater

 

Thank you for your email. We confirm that we did issue a response to you
on the 8 May but there appears to be a technical issue with displaying the
large amount of material issued on WDTK.  We are currently speaking with
our technical colleagues in the DWP and WDTK to try to resolve the problem
as a matter of urgency.

 

Please accept the DWP’s apologies for the delay in providing our response
to you.

 

Regards

 

Correspondence Team

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Dear DWP Health Services Correspondence,

Thank you for such a prompt response. If it helps, I am happy for the Department to send me the information on a CD/DVD by post. It has done this in the past.

Yours sincerely,

John Slater

DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

Dear Mr Slater

 

As we are still experiencing difficulties with publishing the requested
information on your WDTK site, we have as you suggested, issued the
requested information to you on CD by recorded delivery today.

 

Please accept our apologies again for the delay. 

 

Regards

 

Correspondence Team

 

 

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Dear DWP Health Services Correspondence,

That's great, I'm very grateful for your prompt resolution of the problem.

Yours sincerely,

John Slater

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 (2018)'.
Thank you for the information provided by CD.

Having compared the management information specified in Annex G to that provided it seems that certain information has either not been disclosed or is not held by the Department. I would be grateful if the Department addressed the following issues:

MI 28 – Medical Quality Report
This does not appear to have been provided for Atos and Capita.

I would be grateful if the Department either disclosed the information or confirmed that it does not hold it. If it does not hold MI 28, would it please explain why such an important piece of the MI is not provided by Atos and Capita when it is specified in Annex G?

MI 30, MI 31, 31A & 31B– Quality of assessment reports
This does not appear to have been provided for Atos.

I would be grateful if the Department either disclosed the information or confirmed that it does not hold it. If it does not hold MI 30, MI 31, 31A & 31B, would it please explain why such important MI is not provided by Atos when it is specified in Annex G?

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

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no-reply@dwp.ecase.co.uk on behalf of DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear John Slater,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 24th
May.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

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 (2018)'.

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, it raises more questions than answers.

The scope of my IRR of 24 May 2018 is specifically limited to:

MI 28 – Medical Quality Report (for Atos & Capita).
MI30, 31, 31A & 31B – Quality of assessment reports (for Atos).

I take no issue with the redactions in documents that appear to fall within the scope of S.31(1) and S.43.

I accept the Department’s explanation regarding MI28 Medical Quality Report. However, it is unusual to produce a revised Annex G and leave in requirements that have never been delivered and are not expected to be. This is a novel approach to contract management. The Department has breached the FOIA in its handling of MI28 as it was required to inform me that it did not hold the requested information in its original response.

I am at a loss to see how S.31(1) and S.43 could apply to the information that falls within the scope of my IRR of 24 May 2019. In respect of S.40(2) this does not apply as my original RFI specifically excluded personal information from scope by stating:

“This request is made on the assumption that the Department will carry out relevant redaction of personal information exempt under the FOIA (Section 40 (2))”

The Department states in its response of 24 June 2019 (ref: IR2019/19881):
“In 2016, the department introduced ‘authority independent audit (AIA)’ into Personal Independence Payment contracts for the purposes of monitoring the quality of assessment reports submitted to the department by assessment providers (APs).

From this point forward, APs were no longer required to submit management information (MI) reports numbered 30, 31, 31A & 31B of Annex G, as the quality of assessment reports was derived from the AIA process. MI report 28 was a pre-contract expectation. The department subsequently decided this was not required and this report has never been delivered by APs.”

However, in its response of 08 May 2019 (ref: FOI2019/06760) it stated:

“Your RFI1request refers to ‘MI prescribed in the Service Specification FINAL v2.0’ which is now extremely out of date. In 2016, following a Contract Review, there were several changes made to the Contract, including the removal of MI requirements from the Service Specification. From this point forward MI requirements were captured solely in the Terms & Conditions of the Contract (Annex G). A copy of Annex G is included within this response.”

I suggest the implication is that the version of Annex G disclosed contains the current contractually required management information. If this is not the case, then the Department appears to have misled me.

The Department’s position that MI reports 30, 31, 31A & 31B have never been delivered by assessment providers is further damaged by the fact that Capita did deliver the all of this MI for the whole of 2018, hence my IRR only applying to Atos. Given the obvious contradictions here I ask that the Department revisit its response.

As with MI28 the Department has breached the FOIA by failing to tell me that it did not hold this requested information in its original response.

If the Department persists with its position, then I suggest it should explain why Capita has continued to deliver MI reports that haven’t been required for 2 years and why they remain part of Annex G.

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

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the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
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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 (2018)'.

The Department is aware that it should have provided its response to my IRR by now. It even told a Journalist that it was going to do so. Is the Department really going to make be complain to the ICO again?

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
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Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
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[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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no-reply@dwp.ecase.co.uk on behalf of DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear John Slater,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 13th
August.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

no-reply@dwp.ecase.co.uk on behalf of DWP Health Services Correspondence, Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear John Slater,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 13th
August.

Please accept our apologise for the response we issued earlier that had an
incorrect date.

Forwarding the same response as earlier but with the correct date, that
should have been, 2 September 2019.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team