20 July 2023
Your request
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding the translation and interpreting services, including BSL, used by the council. Please could you provide the following information:
1. Name of current service provider or providers
2. Copy of successful tender.
3. Final pricing of successful bidder.
4. Where was this opportunity advertised?
5. Expiry date of the current contract.
6. What was the contract value of all interpreting and translation services in 2022?
7. What proportion of your interpretation services were delivered through telephone in 2022?
8. What proportion of your interpretation services were delivered through video in 2022?
9. What were all the languages requested in 2022?
10. What languages were your suppliers not able to provide in 2022?
11. Please can you provide the name, job title, email address and contact number for the person(s) responsible for awarding any contracts relating to these services.
Our response
- The Big Word & Sign Live Ltd. Info relating to The Big Word below:
- I can confirm that we have reviewed your request but consider that the information is commercially sensitive and therefore we are unable to provide it as commercially sensitive.
We therefore engage Section 43: Commercial Interests to this request/part of this request if providing some information & redacting other information
Section 43 (Commercial Interests)
Section 43 of the Act sets out an exemption from the right to know if:
• the information requested is a trade secret, or
• release of the information is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any person. (A person may be an individual, a company, the public authority itself or any other legal entity.)
As this exemption is qualified and prejudice-based, we are obliged to outline the harm in disclosure and explain why we consider that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
Harm in Disclosure
Disclosure would discourage other companies from wanting to work with the Council and could risk damage to our relationship with the company.
Public Interest in Disclosure
We appreciate the benefits in transparency and that disclosure would improve public knowledge & debate on this issue.
Public Interest in maintaining the exemption
It is not in the public interest to provide detrimental information about a third party if to do so would weaken the third party’s position in the market.
It is not in the public interest to provide commercially sensitive information if it would mean that the Council cannot attract future suppliers as we cannot then achieve the best value for money for our residents.
In accordance with Section 17 FOIA this letter represents a Refusal Notice for this part of the request.
3. As Q2
4. A further competition exercise was conducted through the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) Framework for Language Services (RM6141) utilising Lot 5G (Regional Managed Service – London) of the framework.
5. The contract runs to the 16 May 2024, with the option to extend for two additional 12-month terms up to the 16 May 2026
6. £75000
7. 80%
8. Under FOI Section 1(1) any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled (a) to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request (b) if that is the case, to have that information communicated to them. I am advised by my colleagues that Lambeth Council does not hold any such information. Consequently, the answer to Section 1(1)(a) is no and thus our further duty under 1(1)(b) does not arise on this occasion.
9.
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Spanish |
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Portuguese |
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Arabic |
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Tigrinya |
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Somali |
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French |
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Bengali |
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Russian |
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Ukrainian |
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Polish |
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Pashto |
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Romanian |
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Vietnamese |
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Amharic |
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Urdu |
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Bulgarian |
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Mandarin |
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Albanian |
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Farsi (Persian) |
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Punjabi |
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Twi |
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Sylheti |
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Turkish |
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Yoruba |
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Italian |
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Farsi (Afghan) |
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Lithuanian |
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Lingala |
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Tamil |
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Portuguese (Brazil) |
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Kurdish (Sorani) |
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Greek |
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Cantonese |
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Hindi |
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Hungarian |
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Gujarati |
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Oromo |
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German |
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Wolof |
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Krio |
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Tagalog |
|
Spanish LatinAmerica |
|
Korean |
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Kurdish (Kurmanji) |
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Sudanese |
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Malayalam |
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Latvian |
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Armenian |
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Nepali |
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Marathi |
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Slovak |
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Ndebele |
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Fulani |
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Thai |
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Kurdish(Bahdini) |
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Hakka |
10.N/A all languages are available
11. Lambeth Council can provide officer details at the Strategic Level only; this information is available on the Lambeth website below.
How Lambeth Council is organised | Lambeth Council
The email address follows the Lambeth standard logic of initialfirstnamelastname@lambeth.gov.uk
We are unable to give out individual phone numbers.
I can confirm that we have reviewed this part of your request and consider disclosure would breach the Data Protection Act 2018 and therefore engage Section 40(2): Personal Data to this request.
The definition of personal data is set out in provision 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 as follows:-
(2)“Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual
(3)“Identifiable living individual” means a living individual who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to—
(a)an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data or an online identifier, or
(b)one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of the individual.
We note this request asks for information which would allow an individual(s) to be identified.
I have considered whether it would be fair to disclose the information including whether disclosure would cause any unnecessary or unjustified damage or distress to the individual concerned; the individual’s reasonable expectations of what would happen to their information; and balancing the rights and freedoms of the data subject with legitimate interests.
In this case, I can confirm that it would not be fair to the individuals to disclose information about their personal data (their name, job title, email address and contact number) as it could cause distress to the individuals.
I do not consider that the individuals would expect the Council to disclose any information which may allow them to be identified. Although I acknowledge the legitimate interest in disclosing general information relating to this request, I do not consider the legitimate interest overrides the rights and freedoms of the individual on this occasion.
In accordance with Section 17 FOIA this letter represents a Refusal Notice for this part of the request.
- The Big Word & Sign Live Ltd. Info relating to Sign Live below:
- I can confirm that we have reviewed your request but consider that the information is commercially sensitive and therefore we are unable to provide it as commercially sensitive.
We therefore engage Section 43: Commercial Interests to this request/part of this request if providing some information & redacting other information
Section 43 (Commercial Interests)
Section 43 of the Act sets out an exemption from the right to know if:
• the information requested is a trade secret, or
• release of the information is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any person. (A person may be an individual, a company, the public authority itself or any other legal entity.)
As this exemption is qualified and prejudice-based, we are obliged to outline the harm in disclosure and explain why we consider that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
Harm in Disclosure
Disclosure would discourage other companies from wanting to work with the Council and could risk damage to our relationship with the company.
Public Interest in Disclosure
We appreciate the benefits in transparency and that disclosure would improve public knowledge & debate on this issue.
Public Interest in maintaining the exemption
It is not in the public interest to provide detrimental information about a third party if to do so would weaken the third party’s position in the market.
It is not in the public interest to provide commercially sensitive information if it would mean that the Council cannot attract future suppliers as we cannot then achieve the best value for money for our residents.
In accordance with Section 17 FOIA this letter represents a Refusal Notice for this part of the request.
3. As Q2
4. Invited by Council
5. Rolling contract
6. £2,040 + vat
7. Sign Live could not provide this however advise they provided Lambeth with 1,500 of online BSL interpreting in 2022
8. As Q7
9. Sign Live only provides British Sign Language
10. Note above
11. Lambeth Council can provide officer details at the Strategic Level only; this information is available on the Lambeth website below.
How Lambeth Council is organised | Lambeth Council
The email address follows the Lambeth standard logic of initialfirstnamelastname@lambeth.gov.uk
We are unable to give out individual phone numbers.
I can confirm that we have reviewed this part of your request and consider disclosure would breach the Data Protection Act 2018 and therefore engage Section 40(2): Personal Data to this request.
The definition of personal data is set out in provision 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 as follows:-
(2)“Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual
(3)“Identifiable living individual” means a living individual who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to—
(a)an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data or an online identifier, or
(b)one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of the individual.
We note this request asks for information which would allow an individual(s) to be identified.
I have considered whether it would be fair to disclose the information including whether disclosure would cause any unnecessary or unjustified damage or distress to the individual concerned; the individual’s reasonable expectations of what would happen to their information; and balancing the rights and freedoms of the data subject with legitimate interests.
In this case, I can confirm that it would not be fair to the individuals to disclose information about their personal data (their name, job title, email address and contact number) as it could cause distress to the individuals.
I do not consider that the individuals would expect the Council to disclose any information which may allow them to be identified. Although I acknowledge the legitimate interest in disclosing general information relating to this request, I do not consider the legitimate interest overrides the rights and freedoms of the individual on this occasion.
In accordance with Section 17 FOIA this letter represents a Refusal Notice for this part of the request.