The information I request is for:
1) Details of the contractual arrangements and requirements between CDS (or the relevant legal contracting entity on behalf of CDS) and Airband for their broadband roll-out services under CDS.
This information can be found below:
Somerset County Council and Airband Community Internet Limited (“Airband“), Connecting Devon and Somerset Superfast Extension Programme Contract for the provision of deployed services for (1) lot C Contract no. CP1827-19(C) CDS Airband Lot C Contract
Lot E Contract no. CP1827-19(E),CDS Airband Lot E Contract
Lot F Contract no. CP1827-19(F) CDS Airband Lot F Contract
Connecting Devon and Somerset Superfast Extension Programme Phase 2-Lot 4 Contract no. CP1194-15 (4) are provided (the “Airband Contracts“). CDS Airband Lot 4 Contract
CDS is entitled to publish the Airband Contracts to the general public, under the terms of the contracts, but information which is exempt from disclosure has been blacked out or not disclosed for the following reasons;
This information is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Personal Data).
The Council cannot disclose personal information if releasing it would contravene any of the provisions in the UK General Data Protection Regulation. In this instance release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore the information is withheld.
This information is exempt from disclosure under Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Commercial Interests)
Devon County Council can confirm the requested information is held; however, the disclosure of this information would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of legal and natural persons, namely Airband, its key-sub-contractors and CDS itself (i.e. its component local authorities).
This is because sharing this information would or would be likely to cause significant commercial and financial detriment to the supplier as well as being likely to result in significant commercial and financial detriment to CDS in terms of prejudicing its ability to encourage suppliers to participate in future tender exercises and other initiatives undertaken by CDS, and the integrity of the broadband deployment more broadly.
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 counter argument in favour of non – disclosure where disclosure would reduce our ability to negotiate or compete in a commercial environment.
Therefore, the balance of public interest weighs in favour of withholding this information from disclosure.
2) Copies of all communications between CDS, it’s Board, or other officers of any of the public parties to CDS in respect of the performance, or lack of, by Airband.
Compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. This is because it would cover a significant majority of all communications by the Board, CDS team and other local government officers over the course of 3 and a half years. This request would require well in excess of the maximum 18 hours, since, at a rate of one record per minute, CDS could only process 1,080 records and the actual number of records would be a considerable multiple of this.
Under the Act, there is a duty to provide advice and assistance as to how a request can be refined to fit within the appropriate limit. Unfortunately, due to the way the data is held, this is not possible for this request.
3) Any communications between CDS, it’s Board, or others officers of the public parties to the Airband contract specifically relating to the performance or delivery of the Airband network in Cotford-St-Luke, Somerset. This should include any and all communications
from Airband in respect of their expected installation, progress and intentions for broadband assets and connections in this area.
Compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. This is because it covers a large volume of information and in order to locate the specific information requested, it must be located and extracted by staff who must identify the topic of correspondence and applicable/acceptable information sources. This request would require well in excess of the maximum 18 hours, since, at a rate of one record per minute, CDS could only process 1,080 records and the actual number of records would be a considerable multiple of this.
Under the Act, there is a duty to provide advice and assistance as to how a request can be refined to fit within the appropriate limit. Unfortunately, due to the way the data is held, this is not possible for this request.
4) The basis on which Airband were appointed, including any agreed Key Performance Indicators or any other measure of performance that would be used to ensure their delivery of the project in good manner for the public purse.
Airband was appointed to each of the Airband Contracts referred to above following a competitive procurement process. Following the procurement process applicable to Lot 4, the contract for Lot 4 was entered into between Somerset Council and Airband in January 2017. Following the procurement process for Lots C,E & F, the contracts for each of Lots C,E & F were entered into between Somerset Council and Airband in December 2020. This is because, following (i) the completion of the evaluation process for Lot 4 and (2) the completion of the evaluation process of Lots C, E and F, Airband achieved the highest weighted evaluation model in each of those Lots and was considered in each case to have the most economically advantageous tender. As successful tenderer, Airband then entered into the Airband Contracts with Somerset Council in each case, which were finalised and signed as part of the procurement process.
The procurement process was led by Devon County Council’s Procurement Team. External advisors supported the internal team providing technical, legal and commercial expertise. The Department for Culture Media and Sports Building Digital UK (BDUK) team were involved throughout the process, with the BDUK Assurance Board signing off the contracts following legal, commercial and value for money assessments. The National Competence Centre has also approved each contract as state aid compliant under the National Broadband Scheme 2016.
Please refer to the copy of the Airband Contracts provided at response 1 above in order to see agreed measures of performance that are used in respect of Airband’s delivery of the project. Please refer to Schedule 2 (Service Requirements), paragraph 5 (paragraph 4 in the Lot 4 Contract) for service levels that constitute the Minimum Service Requirements. Schedule 6.1 (Governance) sets out the governance arrangements for the purpose of the contract including the meetings that parties must hold, a full list of which is set out at Appendix 1. The Appendix sets out the purpose of each meeting (which includes a number of different ways of measuring performance and/or compliance with contract terms) and the reports/submissions that must be provided to CDS for review (including a Service Requirements Report at C5 which includes review of Service Levels).