Hertfordshire Constabulary

The complainant requested details of all contracts and payments between Rapid Secure and Hertfordshire Constabulary. Ultimately, Hertfordshire Constabulary provided expenditure details for the last five years and cited section 21 of FOIA (information accessible to applicant by other means) in relation to the publicly available contract summary information. It explained that this is a “seven force procurement contract” with the lead force being the Metropolitan Police Service (the ‘MPS’). The complainant complained that the section 21 web link was not provided within the statutory 20 working days. He did not dispute the expenditure information provided so the Commissioner has disregarded this aspect. The Commissioner’s decision is that the contract summary information is reasonably accessible to the complainant such that Hertfordshire Constabulary was entitled to cite section 21 of FOIA for this information. As Hertfordshire Constabulary failed to respond to the request in its entirety within the requisite 20 working days’ timescale, the Commissioner finds it breached section 10 of FOIA. However, as the information has been provided, the Commissioner does not require any steps as a result of this notice.