Capita and Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN) commercial partnership: FOI release

Information requested

Information in relation to our response to the Freedom of Information request referenced FOI/202100264976. 

1. Is there any reason that this information was omitted as the response seems to imply that this is a public body and not a commercial ? Can you please provide details of what the nature of the Capita / SWAN commercial relationship is and whether it remains competitive after 9 years. Does the Scottish Government own rights to SWAN or is it owned by Capita?

2. I cannot find any companies house information relating to SWAN but the MD seems to be Eddie Cronie who is a Capita employee.

3. Can you please look into why the name Capita was excluded from this response as it seems to be fairly significant as they appear to have exclusivity over the majority of Scottish Public networks?

4. Do the underlying contracts between SWAN and the various public bodies co-terminate with the SWAN contract with the Scottish Government and if not then what would the relationship be between SWAN and any potential new supplier of WAN services to Scottish Government after 2023?

Response

The FOI response contained a hyperlink to the website of Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN) which details information about the operational model of the SWAN Framework, including the current commercial relationship with Capita and membership within the Scottish Public Sector.

SWAN is a national collaborative framework contract currently managed on behalf of its members by The Common Services Agency (more commonly known as NHS National Services Scotland (NSS)). The framework agreement itself is entered into by NSS, with all participating Authorities choosing to use the framework making their own call offs based on the catalogue of available services. The Framework is governed by a Management Board of which the Scottish Government is a member.

The Scottish Government do not exclusively own any rights to the SWAN program or framework, nor do we maintain information on the contractual arrangements, including end dates, for other public sector organisations that use SWAN.

There was no attempt to obfuscate the role of Capita within SWAN within the response. The hyperlink to the publicly-accessible SWAN website included within the response provided in-depth information regarding the rationale, background and aims of the framework, including Capita’s role in the Framework.

You should also note that NSS began the process of retendering for the SWAN replacement in August 2021, publishing the re-procurement on the Public Contracts Scotland website. This procurement process is being led by NSS, who issued a Prior Information Notice to the market in August 2021, with a Contract Notice published in September 2021. The procurement is ongoing, with contract award anticipated by November 2022

Contractual arrangements in relation to SWAN across the Scottish Public Sector post 2023 will be dependent on the outcome of this retendering exercise.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.