Reference: CHS/A6ZEJ3-IR (Contract TC449 Relating to Furniture and Associated Products

1 April 2016

Dear Mr Timmins

Reference: CHS/A6ZEJ3-IR (Contract TC449 relating to Furniture and Associated Products for Housing Service)

I am writing in response to your request for an internal review of your freedom of information request reference CHS/A6ZEJ3.

The first part of your internal review request concerned the number of dining chairs purchased under the above contract. The Council’s original response stated that 60 chairs had been purchased. You have questioned this figure and asked under which contract the chairs were purchased. My review found that the original response was clear that the 60 dining chairs were purchased under contract TC449 but that additional chairs were purchased.

As part of my review I obtained from our purchasing and finance system a list of all purchase orders raised with the company awarded contract TC449 up to the date of your original request (4 February 2016). I then identified all those orders that included dining chairs and the quantity of dining chairs involved in each order. This produced a total of 127 dining chairs. In two of the purchase orders the quantity was not shown in the report from the database. However, the total value of those orders suggests a very small number of chairs ordered.

Please accept my apologies for this error. The procurement exercise was originally for the housing support service and your request was handled by the officer who was the main service contact for the procurement exercise. Unfortunately, they were not aware of orders placed with the same company by other parts of the Council and therefore gave you the figure for purchasing of chairs in their own service only.

The second part of your internal review request concerned the application of the exemption in section 43(2) of the Act in relation to your request for evidence that all of the chairs meet British Standard BS4875 Part 1, Level 4 for Strength and Stability. You suggest in your request for an internal review that a copy of the British Standards could be provided.My review has concluded that the Council’s response should not have referred to the section 43(2) exemption and in fact the Council does not hold a copy of the certificate.

I also apologise for this error. Our response to your original request was not up to acceptable standards but I should like to assure you that we are currently carrying out a series of training sessions for all staff involved in responding to freedom of information requests in the Directorate for Children and Families. Part of this training deals specifically with the appropriate application of exemptions and with the need to consider that information might be held in different parts of the organisation..

I hope this letter satisfies your internal review request. If you are not content with the outcome, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Michael Seal

Information Governance, Intelligence and Engagement Manager

Directorate for Children and Families