Contract with Catch22 Staffing & Placements Service
Reference: 25-26207
Date response sent: 01/09/2025
Details of enquiry
- Contractual Agreements: Please provide copies of all contractual agreements or arrangements between: The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and Catch22 (including any services provided under “The Hive”) Specifically in relation to the job advertisement under Job Reference: 260-1850-IMW.
- Secondment and Related Agreements: Please provide copies of any secondment agreements, memoranda of understanding (MoUs), or other contractual arrangements between The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and Catch22 concerning shared staffing, personnel placement, or service delivery.
Response sent
- Contractual Agreements: Please provide copies of all contractual agreements or arrangements between: The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and Catch22 (including any services provided under “The Hive”) Specifically in relation to the job advertisement under Job Reference: 260-1850-IMW.
These are provided and attached:
- Att1 25-26207
- Att2 25-26207
The pricing for both these contracts is held by the Trust, but has been exempted from disclosure under FOIA section 43(2). (details of this exemption and its application have been provided in the explanatory note below).
- Secondment and Related Agreements: Please provide copies of any secondment agreements, memoranda of understanding (MoUs), or other contractual arrangements between The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and Catch22 concerning shared staffing, personnel placement, or service delivery.
There are none, other than those declared in our response to Q1 above.
It is our view that the pricing information in the two attached contracts is exempt from disclosure under Section 43(2) – Commercially Sensitive Information and it is therefore withheld.
Explanation of Exemption Engaged under Section 43(2) of FOIA.
Section 43(2) of FOIA exempts information from disclosure where its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (an individual, a company, the public authority itself or any other legal entity). In this case, we consider that the Tavistock and Portman’s commercial interests would be prejudiced and/or would be likely to be prejudiced by the disclosure of their pricing charged under the requested contracts.
Once information is disclosed under FOIA it has been released into the public domain and freely available not only by the requester but also by the public at large, especially any other providers in a similar market.
Section 43(2) is a qualified exemption and we are required to consider the public interest test (PIT) and the need for transparency, and to balance this against the public interest in allowing the Trust to protect its commercial information and not place itself at a disadvantage in the competitive market in which it operates.
Arguments in favour of disclosure:
- Promote accountability and transparency for the Trust’s decisions
Arguments in favour of withholding the information
- the release of what is sensitive pricing information would limit the future purchasing position not only of this Trust, but also other Trusts operating services in a similar way.
- There is a public interest in allowing the Trust to withhold information which if disclosed, would reduce The Trust’s ability to compete in a commercial environment and distort competition in that market, which would not be in the public interest.
- Knowledge of the Trust’s pricing model, could risk a detrimental impact on other Trust contracts and procurements by providing a method of undercutting Trust pricing (competitors) or demanding lower pricing (commissioners)
Consideration of the arguments for and against disclosure
The Trust has found that the weight of public interest in this case lies in maintaining the exemption under section 43(2) FOIA and not to disclose the pricing information in the contracts supplied under this response to a request under FOIA.