14 August 2023
Your request
I am requesting an answer to the following questions relating to the councils Income Management & Cash Receipting system, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
- Who currently supplies the authority with this service?
- How much has the council paid in capital for this solution and service?
- How much does the council pay for annual maintenance & hosting services?
- When did this contract commence?
- When does this contract come up for renewal or replacement?
- Please supply the name of the person or persons who are responsible for this activity within the council?
- What are their contact details?
Our response
- Pay360/Capital
- 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.
We therefore engage Section 43: Commercial Interests to this part of this request.
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 reveal how the third party operates, damage our relationship with them, and may discourage them from further working with the Council, as well as potentially discouraging other companies from wanting to work with the Council.
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 request.
- As above
- July 2023
- As bullet point 2
- 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 contact details/personal data 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
- As above