Freedom of Information Request: 0577 2019/20

 The Trust does hold the information you have requested however we are withholding some of the information for the reasons given below.

Commercial Sensitivity:

4. How we are charged
5. What level we are being charged at
6. The total number of procedures completed by suppliers
7. Total spend by each supplier per service area
8. Annual breakdown per annum of insourcing services per service area

Section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) provides,

“(2) Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).”

A commercial interest relates to a person’s ability to participate competitively in a commercial activity, with the underlying aim being to make a profit. The information you have requested is the commercial information of third parties and in order to apply Section 43(2), the Trust must satisfy itself that disclosure of the information would, or would be likely to, prejudice or harm the commercial interests of any person (including the Trust).

Disclosure of the information requested would be likely to prejudice the commercial activities of a third party, in this case the named companies who provide our insourcing services in the below response.

The information you have requested is around the Trust’s total spend completed by each supplier (named) per service area, the annual breakdown per annum of insourcing services per service area, coupled with the total number of procedures completed – disclosure to the world at large would involve placing elements of the providers’ commercial strategy into the hands of their competitors, which would prejudice their commercial interests. Therefore S43(2) of the FOIA is engaged as disclosure of the information requested would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of the contractors as it would reveal their pricing model.

The public interest test

Commercially sensitive information is protected from disclosure by Section 43(2) of the FOIA which is a qualified exemption subject to the public interest test. The Trust considered, in all the circumstance of the case, where the balance of the public interest lies.

Public interest in maintaining the exemption

There is a public interest in protecting the commercial interests of individual companies such as the contractors and ensuring they are able to compete fairly in a commercial environment.

Disclosure of information may cause unwarranted reputational damage to the Trust or the contractors whose information it holds, which may in turn damage its commercial interests through loss of trade.

Revealing information such as a pricing can be detrimental to the Trust’s negotiations on future tenders with other providers. If a competitor knows how much the Trust paid for a product then it can exploit this for profit or other gain.

Public interest in disclosing the information

To promote openness and transparency of public expenditure, which would enable the public to better scrutinise how public money is spent.

The balancing exercise

The Trust decided the public interest in maintaining the exemption substantially outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

1. Do you insource any clinical services and which ones?

Ophthalmology and Endoscopy

2. Do you have a contract with any company and who is that and for which insourcing services?

18 Week Support

3. Did you procure this under any current framework and if so which one?

NHS SBS insourcing framework

4. How is this charged for by the third party service provider per patient/per tariff 

Withheld under S43 (2) Commercial Sensitivity, please see above for full details

5. Are you currently being charged below, on or above NHS tariff? 

Withheld under S43 (2) Commercial Sensitivity, please see above for full details

6. Do you use substantively employed Trust staff to delivery all or part of the insourced service?

No

7. The total number of procedures completed by each supplier (named) in the following categories:

Withheld under S43 (2) Commercial Sensitivity, please see above for full details

• Endoscopy
• Ophthalmology
• ENT
• Neurology
• Dermatology
• All Other

8. The total spend completed by each supplier (named) per service area Withheld under S43 (2) Commercial Sensitivity, please see above for full details

9. Please give an annual breakdown per annum of insourcing services per service area:

Withheld under S43 (2) Commercial Sensitivity, please see above for full details

• 15/16
• 16/17
• 17/18
• 18/19