OGC Gateway Reviews of the Identity Cards Programme

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The first Freedom of Information Act requests have now been sent to:

OGC Service Desk
Office of Government Commerce
Rosebery Court
St Andrew's Business Park
Norwich
NR7 0HS

Copy sent by email to: ServiceDesk@ogc.gsi.gov.uk

and

Direct Communications Unit,
7th Floor Open Plan Suite
The Home Office
50 Queen Anne's Gate
London,
SW1H 9AT

Copy sent by email to: public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

The text of the request to both of these Departments is the same, and it will be interesting to see how each one is handled:

Saturday 1st January 2005

Freedom of Information Act 2000
Formal Request for Information

Dear Sir or Madam

Please provide me with the following information:

The two pre-Stage Zero and the actual Stage Zero Gateway Reviews of the Identity Cards Programme project being run by the Home Office. The Gateway Review Zero was completed a year ago in January 2004 c.f. references in Hansard attached below.

Please provide the information requested by Friday 21st January 2005

The information is needed within that time frame because the House of Commons debate on the Committee Stage of the Identity Cards Bill is due to be completed by Thursday 27th January 2005, and these Gateway Reviews are relevant to my correspondence on this matter with my local Member of Parliament xxx .

If you are not going to be able to provide the information within that time please let me know and indicate when you expect to be able to provide it.

Please provide the information ideally by publishing it on your public world wide website, http://www.ogc.gov.uk or alternatively by email.

In the unlikely event that this information is not already available in a standard electronic format, if you are not able to provide the information in this format, then please explain the reasons why, when you provide the information in another format.

If you are proposing to make a charge for providing the information requested, please provide full details in advance, together with an explanation of any proposed charge

If you decide to withhold any of the information requested you should clearly explain why you have done so in your response by reference to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 legislation. If your decision to withhold is based upon an evaluation of the public interest, then you should clearly explain which public interests you have considered, and why you have decided that the public interest in maintaining the exception(s) outweighs the public interest in releasing the information.

I look forward to receiving the information requested as soon as possible and in any event within 20 working days of receipt. i.e. by Tuesday 1st February 2005

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

If you require any clarification of this request please contact me as soon as possible.


Yours sincerely


email:
mobile phone:


References:

1) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmhaff/130/3121103.htm

Home Affairs Committee

30 July 2004 Fourth Report Identity Cards

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE - VOLUME II (HC 130-II)

Witnesses: Nicola Roche, Director, Children, Identity Cards & Coroners, Katherine Courtney, Director, Identity Cards Programme, and Stephen Harrison, Head, Identity Card Policy Unit, Home Office, examined

Examination of Witnesses (Questions 20 - 39)

THURSDAY 11 DECEMBER 2003
NICOLA ROCHE, KATHERINE COURTNEY AND STEPHEN HARRIS

"Q36 Mr Singh: Just to change tack slightly, would you explain what an Office of Government Commerce Gateway Review Process is and has it started in terms of the ID scheme?

Katherine Courtney: The Office of Government Commerce is an office of the Treasury and was set up really to provide best practice on procurement and programme management of major Government initiatives. The principal mechanism that they use for that is a Gateway Review Process. Gateway Reviews are independent reviews that are carried out by a team of experts at certain fixed key decision points over the lifetime of the programme. There are six Gateway Reviews. They are numbered from Gateway 0 to Gateway 5, that is just the numbering scheme they decided to use. This programme has arranged for its initial Gateway Review, ie Gateway 0, which is really looking at the strategic rationale behind the programme, in late January of 2004. There have been two prior reviews by the Office of Government Commerce of the programme and this is following on from those."


2)
House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 9 Dec 2004 (pt 25)
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmhansrd/cm041209/text/41209w25.htm

9 Dec 2004 : Column 744W—continued

Office of Government Commerce
"Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which stages of the Office of Government Commerce Gateway process the identity cards project has passed through. [201404]
Mr. Browne: The Office of Government Commerce completed a Gateway Zero Review of the Identity Cards Programme in January 2004."


3)
There is should be no question of Commercial Confidentiality as PA Consulting has already been awarded the contract as Development Partner for the Home Office Identity Cards project, and according to Des Browne, the Home Office Minister of State for Citizenship and Immigration: "Further it is stressed that there is no formal procurement under way at the moment"

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 20 Dec 2004 (pt 49)
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmhansrd/cm041220/text/41220w49.htm#41220w49.html_spnew3

"Mr. Bill O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions in the last two years (a) he, (b) his Ministers and (c) officials in his Department have met (i) Aurora Computer Services Ltd. and (ii) other companies involved in providing biometric technology. [203029]
Mr. Browne: According to our records the Identity Cards Programme has not had any formal meetings with Aurora Computer Services Ltd. However, this does not exclude the possibility that Home Office officials have encountered this company when they have attended, or spoken at, conferences or other such meetings. The Identity Cards Programme has met with a range of companies, including those involved in providing biometric technology, as part of its market sounding activities and anticipates meeting with many more before a formal procurement is announced. Market sounding is the process of assessing the reaction of the market to a proposed requirement and procurement approach, and is recognised as best practice in Government procurement.
Market sounding focuses on suppliers as a whole, rather than the merits of individual suppliers. It includes no element of supplier selection (choosing suitable suppliers) or bid evaluation (looking at proposals, technical solutions or prices). There is no commitment of any kind involved—on either side nor any advantage to be gained by a supplier by getting involved. Further it is stressed that there is no formal procurement under way at the moment as the Identity Cards Bill is still before Parliament. Priority for market sounding to date has been given to the smartcard and biometric sectors where the technology is developing quickly, standards are evolving and there is uncertainty about future trends"

1 TrackBack

A Freedom of Information Act 2000 request has been sent off for the Office of Government Commerce Gateway Reviews of the Identity Cards Programme. Now to wait and see what, if anything turns up, and if the OGC is more... Read More

2 Comments

The Office of Government Commerce email address ServiceDesk@ogc.gsi.gov.uk has an autoresponder - Good

The Home Office email address public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk does not - Bad

It will be interestibg to see what happens when the offices open tomorrow after the holidays.

This is the perfect post and may be one that should be followed up to see what happens

A chum emailed this link the other day and I am eagerly looking your next content. Carry on on the first class work.

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