FOI release

FOI2024/00007S FCDO Services spend over the last five years

Published 20 August 2024

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST REF: FOI2024/00007S

Thank you for your email of 5 August 2024 asking for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. You asked:

I would like to request information on your actual Spend over the last five years (i.e. Jan

2018 - Dec 2023). Please can you provide the following:

1. Who are the top ten suppliers that provide:

a) Contingency workers - agency/temporary/long-term

b) Consultancy (all forms)

c) Statement of Works - (SoW)

d) Recruit, Train and Deploy - refers to the recruitment process of selecting candidates with or without lower qualification levels who are placed on a targeted training programme before joining the organisation on specific projects.

For the avoidance of doubt, ‘by supplier’ I mean employment agencies, RPO providers, contractor providers – consultancy providers.

In terms of the deliverable, I would like a PDF or CSV/Excel file which shows the top 10 suppliers based on actual spend over the last 5 years per categories a-d.

The list should show category name (i.e. contingency vs SOW),

supplier name, total spending in £ across the 5 year period, then

total spending in £ by calendar year. E.g.

Consultancy:

Deloitte - £XX Jan 2018 - Dec 2023

£XX 2018

£XX 2019

£XX 2020

£XX 2021

£XX 2022

£XX 2023

1. Ernst & Young

Etc.

I can confirm that the FCDO does hold information relevant to your request.

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit. The limit has been specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

For central government the appropriate limit is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one or more persons spending 3 ½ working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting it.

Your request, as presently formulated, is widely-framed and I estimate that it will take more than 3 ½ working days to locate, retrieve and extract this information. In these circumstances we are not obliged under the Act to comply with your request. You may therefore wish to refine your request to narrow its scope to bring it within the appropriate limit.

One suggestion would be to narrow the timeframe; the current request is for a search of records across six calendar years. Additionally, you could refine the meaning of ‘consultancy’ to only those suppliers that provide consultancy advice, as defined in the Crown Commercial Services Management Consultancy Framework.   

Please note that any new request will be given a separate reference number and we will then consider whether we can provide the information requested within the appropriate cost limit.  This would of course be subject to the consideration of whether any of the other exemptions under the FOIA apply.

If you would like to request a review of our decision, you should write to the Data Protection Officer (DPO), Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) Team, FCDO Services, Hanslope Park, Milton Keynes, England, MK19 7BH (e-mail: FCDOServices.DataProtectionOfficer@fcdo.gov.uk).  Please note you have 40 working days to do so from the date of this letter. Please quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may then apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.  Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the FCDO. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, or online at: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

Yours sincerely,

FOI Officer

Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) Team

FCDO Services