Information pertaining to Telephony and Communication systems used by Social Security Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

With relation to Telephony and communication systems used by Social Security Scotland:

Request for information 1: Who maintains your telephony system(s)?

Request for information 2: Please confirm value of the initial project and value of annual support/maintenance services (in £)?

Request for information 3: When is your contract renewal date?

Request for information 4: Please confirm the manufacturer of your Contact centre system(s) that are currently in place?

Request for information 5: When was the installation date of your contact centre infrastructure?

Request for information 6: Who maintains your contact centre system(s)?

Request for information 7: Please confirm value of the initial project and value of annual support/maintenance services (in £)?

Request for information 8: How many contact centre employees/agents do you have?

Request for information 9: When is your contract renewal date?

Request for information 10: Do you use Unified Communications or Collaboration tools such as Microsoft Skype forBusiness/Cisco/Avaya/Mitel? If yes, what tools are you currently using?

Request for information 11: How many employees do you have overall within your organisation?

Request for information 12: Who currently provides your calls and lines?

Request for information 13: What is your current annual spend on calls and lines?

Request for information 14: When is your contract renewal date?

Request for information 15: Are you using SIP or ISDN?

Request for information 16: Do you use a wide area network?

Response

Social Security Scotland’s telephony system and contact centre system are considered to be one and the same and are managed under the same single supplier contract.

Request for information 1, 6 and 12: Vodafone Limited

Request for information 2, 7 and 13: The total estimated contract value for the initial 3 years is £5,500,000.00 as published on Public Contracts Scotland View Notice - Public Contracts Scotland.

The project is currently being re-procured.

An exemption under section 33(1)(b) of FOISA (commercial interests) applies to some of the information requested. The exemption applies because disclosure of this particular information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of the incumbent supplier.

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. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government, and to help account for the expenditure of public money.

However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial interests of companies which tender for Scottish Government contracts, to ensure that we are always able to obtain the best value for public money.

Request for information 3, 9 and 14: 1 April 2026

Request for information 4: Content Guru

Request for information 5: Installation activities took place between June 2020 and April 2021.

Request for information 8 and 11: I have interpreted these parts of your request to be for information relating to members of staff that answer calls on our inbound lines. You should be aware that the resource applied to this changes with demand. Staff working in this area will also be involved in other tasks such as processing applications, ongoing case maintenance and making outbound contact with clients to request supporting information. 

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. This is because we are currently unable to accurately capture information on the amount of staff handling inbound calls.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Social Security Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested.

Our most recent workforce statistics publication can be found at our Official Statistics page here: Social Security Scotland - Social Security Scotland – workforce information: March 2024. This
publication contains information on total headcount. 

Request for information 10: For external engagement and communications, Social Security Scotland do not currently use full Unified Communication or Collaboration tools.

Request for information 15: Social Security Scotland use Session Initiation protocol (SIP).

Request for information 16: Social Security Scotland uses a wide area network.

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.