· FOI · cost limit
Correspondence/contracts from 11 named companies:FOI release
Information requested
Any correspondence or contracts between the Scottish Government and {eleven companies}, from 2011 or the earliest possible date to the present.
Subsequently clarified the name of one of those companies and also that if correspondence would exceed the cost limit then provide the details of any contracts entered into by the Scottish Government.
Response
Regarding the part of your request for "any correspondence", while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. It may help if I explain that we file our information according to the subject matter, not by reference to the names of organisations or individuals with whom we have corresponded. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.
You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could specify the subject matter(s) of the correspondence you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.
Regarding the part of your request for the details of any contracts entered into by the Scottish Government, please refer to the following (all relating to the period from 2011).
Red Tree Research/Survation Ltd/First Opinion Ltd/Pursuit Marketing/Relationship Marketing Ltd/City Park Technology Centre Ltd/Anderson Knight Ltd/BSS Scotland Ltd/Change Recruitment Group/ICM Research Ltd:
A search of our records found no Scottish Government contracts with these companies.
M&ORI (also known as Ipsos MORI)
A search of our records identified the following contracts awarded since April 2011 to this company:
Award Date Contract Name Award Value June 2011 An Evaluation of Local Authority Hub Working to Prevent Homelessness £33,020 June 2011 Scottish Household Survey 2012- 2015 NOTE 1 £8,009,695 September 2011 Review of the Scottish Alcohol Sponsorship Guidelines £23,332 January 2012 Behaviour in Scottish Schools (Research Project) £128,527 February 2012 SME Access to Finance (Survey) £55,398 January 2013 Data Linkage - Deliberative Research £39,820 March 2013 Testing canvass form for the registration of young voters £20,982 May 2013 Public acceptability of data sharing between the public and private sectors for statistical or research purposes £73,590 August 2013 Reducing Reoffending Change Fund Evaluation £150,700 (est.) November 2013 An Assessment of the Impact of the Living Wage in Scotland £39,255 February 2014 Scottish Agricultural Tenant Farmers Survey £54,600 February 2014 RPID Customer Satisfaction Survey to Inform Futures Programme £27,600 February 2014 Scottish Agricultural Landlord Survey £47,100 May 2014 Regulation of the energy efficiency of private sector housing £46,020 July 2014 Focus group research on the future of the benefits system in Scotland £19,563 August 2014 Views and experiences of tenant farmers and landlords on the functioning of the tenancy system £79,800 August 2014 Data Review in support of the Commonwealth Games 2014 Legacy Evaluation £15,000 August 2014 Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS) £246,921 July 2015 SALSUS: Creating a simplified dataset for time series analysis £12,000 August 2015 Evaluation of the Impact of the Implementation of "Teaching Scotland's Future" £89,137 September 2015 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey £5,268,499 February 2016 Evaluation of the "Caledonian System" Offender Programme £44,996 May 2016 The Costs of Childcare Provision for Private Sector and Not-for-Profit Partner Providers £29,700 July 2016 Behaviour in Scottish Schools £127,988 August 2016 Scottish Public Opinion Monitor (Cyber Resilience) £10,800 August 2016 Research on the Drivers & Barriers to Uptake of Early Learning & Childcare £24,975 September 2016 Young People in Scotland Survey 2016 £19,775 December 2016 Evaluation of the Scottish Baby Box Pilot £37,000 March 2017 Evaluation of the "Moving Forward: Making Changes" Sex Offender Programme £50,000 August 2017 Review of the Aberdeen Problem-Solving Approach £35,000 October 2017 Scottish Household Survey 2018-2021 NOTE 2 £15,600,000 November 2017 Contribution of EU27 workers to social care sectors £44,650 January 2018 Public Perceptions of Serious Organised Crime - Survey £9,850 February 2018 Social Capital - composite and dashboard measurement £14,900 April 2018 The Drivers and Barriers to Uptake of ELC amongst 2 year olds £24,975 April 2018 12 Month Review of the Stop and Search Code of Practice £39,950
NOTE 1 Title of contract as awarded. The contract contained optional extension periods (which were later exercised) for years 2016 and 2017. "Award value" excludes the value of these optional extensions. The out-turn value of the contract was £12,379,484.
NOTE 2 Title of contract as awarded. The contract contains optional extension periods for years 2022 and 2023. "Award value" includes the value of these optional extensions.
Methodology and Caveats
In order to provide you with this information, we have conducted a search of our primary information source for the contract awards made by the Scottish Government (namely, the database of contract award notifications which forms part of the Public Contracts Scotland system). Where no contracts were found by this method, it was generally possible to double-check such a "nil result" by means of a search of our electronic records management system (ERDM) – albeit not with complete certainty where the company name is also a commonly used phrase, such as "relationship marketing". For Ipsos MORI, however, it should be noted that the high number of contracts ruled out this method of verification. In the specific case of Ipsos MORI, therefore, it is possible that there may exist some further contracts (likely to be of lower value and hence below the various thresholds requiring the recording of contracts within PCS) which may not have been identified by this methodology.
Detected exemption language
Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.
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