SENSITIVE INFORMATION POLICY

Transcription

1 . SENSITIVE INFORMATION POLICY DOCUMENT TITLE 1

2 The British Council aims to be as transparent as possible with its information. It also adheres to the requirements of the UK Government s Transparency Agenda and the Freedom of Information Act. This policy identifies information that the British Council will proactively publish in response to these needs (including frequency of publication). It also outlines information which would not normally be published and how the British Council will apply the commercial prejudice exemption under the Freedom of Information Act where requests for commercially sensitive information are received. The British Council also acknowledges that as it operates on a multi-national basis that there may be other reasons why it will need to withhold information. In particular the British Council will not publish personal information when to do so would: Compromise the security of its staff Infringe legal rights to privacy of staff or cause a breach of law in the country of residence of staff. WHAT INFORMATION WILL THE BRITISH COUNCIL PUBLISH IN FUTURE? The British Council will publish the information identified below. Country level information Annual country level financial statements showing income and expenditure of each country operation (already published to the Charity Commissioners). List of teaching, exam and other services offered in each country. Staff numbers. The above information will be published on an annual basis starting with year ended 31 March Financial, contract and procurement information Details of individual items of spend over 25,000 (quarterly). Details of procurement contracts and tenders worth over 10,000, including: Title of contract, location, supplier, location, total contract value, contract start date and end date. (Published on a bi annual basis) - required under procurement and contracting transparency Details of Departmental Procurement Card and Travel and Expenses card spend over 500 (quarterly) DOCUMENT TITLE 2

3 British Council procurement contracts currently available for public tender - required under procurement and contracting transparency required under procurement and contracting transparency We are currently developing reports to enable this process and estimate that such information would only be available prospectively from April 2015 (publication target end of 2015/16 financial year. This will be dependent on the timing of our management information project which is currently in development phase). Delivery of partnerships and cultural relations programmes (details of major contracts, projects and events information run by the British Council) Headline information for current large contracts/projects and events (valued at 1m+) awarded to or managed by the British Council. This headline information includes: Name of the project/contract or event Description of the contract/project or event Location by region Sub-contracting/partnership information: Organisations/Governments we are working with for the delivery of that contract/project or event Commissioning party (if different from above) Total contract value/total project costs/total event cost Whether contract was awarded following a competitive tender or single sourced Whether the contract is delivered through our grant in aid work, funded by revenue or via a partnership (or a combination) The above information will be published from April 2015 on project closure (or annual basis when ongoing) (target publication date end of 2015/16 financial year see above) The British Council is also committed to releasing information via the Department for International Development Tracker and the International Aid Transparency Initiative Withholding information on commercial prejudice grounds The British Council may not publish information where the disclosure of that information is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of the British Council, its delivery partners, third party suppliers or customers.

4 The British Council will not publish information where it is specifically barred from doing so by contract (the British Council shall not unreasonably enter into such contracts), or by local law. Information which would normally not be disclosed on the ground of commercial prejudice includes: Detailed breakdown of pricing information of the British Council, its delivery partners or third party suppliers (outside of total contract values which will be disclosed). Delivery partner/sub-contract fee breakdown, where disclosure would prejudice their commercial interests/ our contractual or legal obligations. When considering whether or not information should be withheld on commercial prejudice grounds the British Council will apply the standards required by the commercial prejudice exemption (section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act. The factors below that we will consider before applying this exemption have been adapted from the Information Commissioner s Office guidance on the use of this commercial prejudice exemption: Whether the information in question is commercially sensitive. Is the information in question commercially sensitive to the British Council or third parties? Has sufficient time elapsed to mean that the information is no longer considered as commercially sensitive? Whether that commercial activity is conducted in a competitive environment. The level of competition within a local market can affect whether the release of information will harm the British Council or a third party s commercial interests. Whether there would be damage to the British Council reputation or business confidence. There may be circumstances where the release of information held by the British Council would damage the reputation or the confidence that customers or suppliers have in the British Council. Where releasing such information would be likely to have a significant impact on revenue or threatens the British Council s ability to obtain supplies or secure funding, information may be withheld. The likelihood of the prejudice being caused. The British Council will consider the nature of the harm that would be caused (i.e. not trivial) and there must be a reasonable risk of Commercial prejudice occurring rather than a remote possibility of prejudice.

5 Even when the British Council have considered that the disclosure of the information would be commercially prejudicial having applied each of the above questions. Application of the commercial prejudice exemption to prevent the disclosure of specific information is still dependent on the further application of a public interest test. Here the British Council will consider whether the public interest in disclosing the information (e.g. for openness and transparency purposes) outweighs the application of the exemption i.e. the commercial prejudice that could be caused. For use until 01/02/2016 British Council 2012 The British Council is the United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.