Mobile Phones Contract - Freedom of information

Please send me the following information with regards to the organisation’s Mobile Phones contract.

If there is more than one provider, please split all the information including the annual average spend, number of connections, duration, contract dates and internal contact details.

1. Network Provider(s) – Please provide me with the network provider name e.g., EE, Telefonica, Vodafone, Three

EE

2. Annual Average Spend for each Network Provider – If this is a new contract, can you please provide the estimated annual spend.

Approximately £62,850

3. Number of Connections- Number of connections for each network provider. (Number of voices only devices, voice and data devices, data only devices) please provide me with the breakdown and not the overall total.

3,966

4. Duration of the contract- please state if the contract also includes contract extensions for each provider.

This information is exempt from disclosure under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means) because it is already publicly available on this contracts register website.

5. Contract Start Date- please can you provide me with the start date of the signed agreement. Please do not provide me with the framework contract date I require the contract dates of the signed agreement. (if there are multiple start dates, could you please provide me with the earliest date for each provider)

6. Contract Expiry Date- please can you provide me with the expiry date of the signed agreement. Please do not provide me with the framework contract date. I require the contract dates of the signed agreement. If
the contract is rolling, please state.

7. Contract Review Date- Please can you provide me with a date when the organisation plans to review this contract.

Around late 2028.

8. The person in the organisation responsible for this particular contract. Can you send me the full contact details Contact Name, Job Title, Contact Number and direct email address for each network provider? If full contact details cannot be provided, please send me their actual job title.

9. If the mobile phone contract is provided by a managed contract, please provide me with the actual name of the network provider along with the number of connections and the internal contact from within the organisation
responsible for this contract.

The contract is not a managed contract, therefore this information is not held by Devon County Council.

10. Is this contract part of an aggregation exercise?

No

11. Please can you provide me with the latest information- If the organisations are currently out to tender, please can you also state the approx. date of the award along with the information above.

The contract is not currently out to tender, therefore this information is not held by Devon County Council.

12. Also, if the contract in the response has expired/rolling please can you provide me with further information if available of the organisation’s plans going forward with regards to mobiles and the contract status?

N/A

13. If this contract was awarded within the past three months, can you please provide me with a shortlist of suppliers that bid on the contract?

We consider the information regarding unsuccessful bidders to be exempt from disclosure under Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Commercial Interests). Devon County Council (DCC) can confirm the requested information is held; however, it’s disclosure would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of DCC.

This is because sharing this information could jeopardise our ability to attract interest in working with DCC, and tenders competing for business, due to bidders not wishing to bid for and enter into contracts with a local authority that has a reputation for releasing information deemed commercially sensitive which could cause potential reputational damage to themselves. This could result in less choice and competitiveness and have a negative impact on the cost DCC pays for goods, services and works.

The Council has considered the public interest in releasing this information and recognises there is a public interest in openness and transparency. However, there is a stronger public interest in ensuring DCC are able to outsource and procure contracts for their services that ensure best value for money for the taxpayer so the maximum amount of money can be spent on services for the people of Devon.

Therefore, the balance of public interest weighs in favour of withholding this information from disclosure.