Documents relating to the procurement of the National Standardised Assessment: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request (202400407331)

Please could I be provided with documents relating to the procurement of the National Standardised Assessment. I'm assuming there would be documentation on:

1. specification for the National Standardisation Assessment
2. details of how many suppliers bid for the project
3. bid proposals
4. selection criteria for the bid proposals
5. analysis of the bid proposal

The project was awarded to AlphaPlus.

Response

Further to my letter of 3 April 2024, I have now completed my review of our failure to respond to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for

documents relating to the procurement of the National Standardised Assessment. I'm assuming there would be documentation on:

1. specification for the National Standardisation Assessment

2. details of how many suppliers bid for the project*

3. bid proposals

4. selection criteria for the bid proposals

5. analysis of the bid proposal"

*Your 26 March email also asked that we "Please confirm the names of all three bidders."

In accordance with section 21(4) of FOISA, I have also reached a decision on your request.

Firstly, please accept my apologies for the long delay in replying to your original request, this was a result of an administrative error within the Scottish Government.

I can now provide our response to your original request. I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested – the numbers below relate to the different aspects of your request set out above.

1. The specification was published at the time but it is no longer available online. I have therefore attached a copy of the specification.

2. Three bids were received. The Suppliers who bid were Alpha Plus Consultancy Ltd, Giglets Education & ACER International (UK) Ltd.

3. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. We only have the successful (AlphaPlus) tender on file. This is in keeping in line with our Data Retention Policy whereby for unsuccessful tenderers the information is retained for one year after the date of last action. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have all the information you have requested.

The AlphaPlus tender (36 documents) is attached. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under sections, 33(1)(b) (substantial prejudice to commercial interests) and 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained in the Annex to this letter.

4. Attached are the evaluation and award criteria that were used to evaluate the bids.

5. Attached are the score sheets for the three bids completed by the evaluators. We are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information.

*Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above. If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

ANNEX

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

An exemption under section 33(1)(b) (substantial prejudice to commercial interests) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. It is considered that releasing this information, and potentially giving competitors detailed knowledge of AlphaPlus and the workings of the assessments they provide, would have a significant impact on the ability of AlphaPlus to continue the commercial trading activity they undertake.

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. Releasing this kind of information would deter potential providers from tendering for this kind of contract in future – it is a small and rather specialised area of work and it would not be in the public interest, or good value for money, to limit the number of providers tendering.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) applies to some of the information you have requested. For example, the names, photographs and CVs of various employees of AlphaPlus and their subcontractors, in particular more junior members of staff, have been redacted.

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. This is in keeping with the Scottish Government’s practice of not releasing information about junior members of staff.

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.