Information for the PR 2023 031 Office Furniture contract
Please note, the notice has been recently amended following the CPS noting a discrepancy with the contract awarded value.
What are the contractual performance KPI's for this contract?
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does hold information to respond to this question which is publicly available on the CPS website and therefore is exempt and withheld from disclosure under Section 21 - ‘Information accessible to applicant by other means’ of the FOI Act.
Section 17 Notice under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
WITHHOLDING INFORMATION
Section 21 states Information accessible to applicant by other means.
(1) Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section 21 is exempt information.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)—
(a) Information may be reasonably accessible to the applicant even though it is accessible only on payment, and
(b) Information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) to members of the public on request, whether free of charge or on payment.
(3) For the purposes of subsection (1), information which is held by a public authority and does not fall within subsection (2) (b) is not to be regarded as reasonably accessible to the applicant merely because the information is available from the public authority itself on request, unless the information is made available in accordance with the authority’s publication scheme and any payment required is specified in, or determined in accordance with, the scheme.
Section 21 is an absolute exemption which means there is no requirement to carry out a public interest test if the requested information is exempt.
However, under Section 16 of the FOI Act we have an obligation to advise what, if any, information may assist you with your request. Please go to this entry in the government Contract Finder and scroll down to ‘More Information’, ‘Attachments’, and then click onto the ‘redacted contract’ which contains the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) for this contract.
Suppliers who applied for inclusion on each framework/contract and were successful & not successful at the PQQ & ITT stages.
This was a Direct Award to Gresham Furniture via the YPO 1074 Office Furniture framework justified under the Framework terms and conditions as the supplier who offers the most economically advantageous solution to the CPS. Those suppliers’ names who were considered but were unsuccessful are withheld from disclosure under Section 43(2) – ‘Commercial Interests’ of the FOI Act, which exempts information where disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any legal person.
Section 17 Notice under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
WITHHOLDING INFORMATION
Section 43(2) Commercial interests:
Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).
This is a qualified exemption which means that the decision to disclose the requested material is subject to the public interest test.
Factors in favour of disclosure
Transparency on how the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spends public money may increase public confidence in the CPS.
Factors in favour of non-disclosure
Should the CPS release the specific service offerings of one or many Suppliers into the public domain it would enable any other organisation to copy or replicate the services that the Suppliers invested in thus compromising the Supplier’s competitive advantage and prejudicing their overall commercial interests.
In parallel, the CPS’ commercial interests would be damaged if it does not safeguard sensitive information entrusted to it by actual, or potential, Suppliers. Assurances and agreements of confidentiality made by the CPS would be likely to lack credibility which could in turn hinder the ability of the CPS to select the Supplier deemed to offer the best value for the spending of public funds. This is not in the public interest.
The CPS considers the services provided by the Supplier as a key business process. Under the terms of the contract the business process is deemed to be commercially sensitive information and therefore not disclosable.
On balance, the CPS considers the public interest favours maintaining this exemption for the reasons outlined above.
Actual spend on this contract/framework (and any sub lots), from the start of the contract to the current date
The total amounts to £80,563.45.
Start date & duration of framework/contract?
From 18/12/2023 to 17/12/2024 – 1 year duration.
Could you please provide a copy of the service/product specification given to all bidders for when this contract was last advertised?
As per our response to the first question above, the CPS does hold information to respond to this question which is publicly available on the CPS website and therefore is exempt and withheld from disclosure under Section 21- ‘Information accessible to applicant by other means’ of the FOI Act.
However, under Section 16 of the FOI Act we have an obligation to advise what, if any, information may assist you with your request. Please go to the government Contract Finder and scroll down to ‘More Information’, ‘Attachments’, and click onto the ‘redacted contract’ which contains the full specification for this contract.
Is there an extension clause in the framework(s)/contract(s) and, if so, the duration of the extension?
Two x 12-month periods.
Has a decision been made yet on whether the framework(s)/contract(s) are being either extended or renewed?
A decision has yet to be made.
Who is the senior officer (outside of procurement) responsible for this contract?
The CPS officer responsible for this contract is Steve Buckingham, Chief Finance Officer.