Successful written submissions made for the Baseline Accessibility Review tender: FOI release

Information requested

 

You asked for the successful written submissions made by Universal Accessibility Ltd made for the following tender – Baseline Accessibility Review

Response

 

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

 

Exemptions under section 33(1)(b) of FOISA (commercial interests) and section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested. More information about their application can be found in Annex A.

 

ANNEX A 

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

 

An exemption applies

An exemption under section 33 (1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested.  Information may be withheld if disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any person or organisation.  This exemption applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of Universal Accessibility. Disclosing this information would be likely to give Universal Accessibility’s competitors an advantage in future similar tendering exercises, which would substantially prejudice Universal Accessibility’s ability to submit competitive tenders and so could significantly harm their commercial business. 

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.  We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption.  We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government, and to help account for the expenditure of public money.  However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial interests of companies which tender for Scottish Government contracts, to ensure that we are always able to obtain the best value for public money.

 

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party (the names and contact details of individuals) and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

 

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foi-19-00339 Information requested

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11 page PDF

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