FOI release

FOI22/23-028 - Telephony contracts

Published 18 January 2023

Our ref: FOI22/23-028

1. Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your email of 1 June in which you requested from the Insolvency Service:

“Please can you send me the following contract information with regards to the organisation’s telephone system maintenance contract (VOIP or PBX, other) for hardware and Software maintenance and support if all the information is still the same besides the contracts dates please send just the new contract dates. It would be much appreciated.

1. Contract Type: Maintenance, Managed, shared (If so, please state orgs)
2. Existing Supplier: If there is more than one supplier, please split each contract up individually.
3. Annual Average Spend: The annual average spends for this contract and please provide the average spend over the past 3 years for each provider
4. Hardware Brand: The primary hardware brand of the organisation’s telephone system.
5. Number of telephone users:
6. Contract Duration: please include any extension periods.
7. Contract Expiry Date: Please provide me with the day/month/year.
8. Contract Review Date: Please provide me with the day/month/year.
9. Application(s) running on PBX/VOIP systems: Applications that run on the actual PBX or VOIP system. E.g., Contact Centre, Communication Manager.
10. Telephone System Type: PBX, VOIP, Lync etc
11. Contract Description: Please provide me with a brief description of the overall service provided under this contract.
12. Go to Market: How where these services procured, please provide me with either the tender notice or the framework reference number. Please specify if procured through other routes.
13. Contact Detail: Of the person from within the organisation responsible for each contract full Contact details including full name, job title, direct contact number and direct email address.

If the service support area has more than one provider for telephone maintenance, then can you please split each contract up individually for each provider.

If the contract is a managed service or is a contract that provides more than just telephone maintenance, please can you send me all the information specified above including the person from within the organisation responsible for that particular contract.

If the maintenance for telephone systems is maintained in-house, please can you provide me with:

1. Number of telephone Users:
2. Hardware Brand: The primary hardware brand of the organisation’s telephone system.
3. Application(s) running on PBX/VOIP systems: Applications that run on the actual PBX or VOIP system. E.g., Contact Centre, Communication Manager.
4. Contact Detail: Of the person from with the organisation responsible for telephone

maintenance full Contact details including full name, job title, direct contact number and direct email address.

Also, if the contract is due to expire, please provide me with the likely outcome of the expiring contract.

If this is a new contract or a new supplier, please can you provide me with a short list of suppliers that bid on this service/support contract?

Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).”

I can confirm the Insolvency Service holds some of this information as outlined in the attached annex.

Some of this is exempt information under Section 43(2) and under Section 40(2) of the FOIA.

Contact details are exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) of the FOIA, because it constitutes personal data. Personal data can only be released if to do so would not contravene any of the data protection principles set out in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018. This is an absolute exemption and does not require a public interest test.

The answer to question 9 “Application(s) running on PBX/VOIP systems: Applications that run on the actual PBX or VOIP system. E.g. Contact Centre” is exempt under Section 43(2) of the Act as its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it). In order to apply this exemption, I have undertaken a public interest test and I am satisfied that it is not appropriate to disclose the information requested at question 9 of your request.

Doing so will likely prejudice the supplier’s commercially sensitive information provided in their proposals to the Insolvency Service during the tendering process.

Below are further answers to the questions not included in the attached annex.

1. Hardware Brand: The primary hardware brand of the organisation’s telephone system. N/A

2. Number of telephone users: - Teams Telephony x 2,107

3. Telephone System Type: PBX, VOIP, Lync etc – Anywhere 365 with Teams

If you are not satisfied with the response we have provided you and would like us to reconsider our decision by way of an internal review (IR), please contact our Information Rights Team at foi@insolvency.gov.uk or by post at:

Information Rights Team

The Insolvency Service

3rd Floor

Cannon House

18 Priory Queensway

Birmingham

B4 6FD

United Kingdom

You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) if you wish for them to investigate any complaint you may have regarding our handling of your request. However, please note that the ICO is likely to expect an IR to have been completed in the first instance.

Kind regards

Information Rights Team

The Insolvency Service