FOI on IT contracts.pdf - The Rural Payments Agency - Defra

RE: RFI 329
Further to my email of 17 September 2006, I am now replying to your request for information
dated 26 May 2006. I apologise for the delay in responding. I have fully addressed your
request, including consultations with operations and legal colleagues, concerning the
response detailed below.
You have asked for a copy of the initial contract and subsequent contracts for further work
between Accenture and the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) in relation to IT projects which
service CAP payments, including the introduction of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS).
A copy of the contract is enclosed at Annex A, including schedules. Amendments to the
contract are made as Change Control Notices (CCNs). Copies of the CCNs are included in
Annex B. The original Accenture contract was signed some months prior to the
announcement of CAP reform and the SPS. The contract does not relate solely to SPS but
also to other generic functions that can be used for other purposes, for example The
Customer Register, Customer Service Centre and Document Management Unit. The work
undertaken by Accenture has to date mainly been utilised for SPS but is also used by the
Rural Development Service and is likely to used as one of the main Defra corporate
repositories, therefore the investment will continue to be utilised for more than just SPS
related work.
You have also asked for a copy of the initial contract and subsequent contracts for any
further work between IBM and RPA in relation to IT projects which service CAP payments,
including the introduction of the SPS. You want to know the total value of payments made
by this department to IBM in relation to work undertaken in connection with the SPS.
A contract was signed between Defra and IBM on 19 July 2004 to provide infrastructure and
application support to the Department. RPA, which does not have a distinct legal identity
from Defra, was included within the contract but it received predominantly infrastructure
support which was not confined to SPS applications. IBM has not been contracted to
undertake SPS specific work.
You have requested a list of the names of any other computer companies engaged by RPA
in connection with delivery of SPS, the value of payments made to these companies for
their services and details of their remit and tasks carried out in connection with the delivery
of the SPS.
Accenture is RPA’s prime contractor for all SPS development work. RPA approves the use
of certain sub contractors and they are named in Schedule 16 of the Contract. RPA holds
no information on when or how these Contractors are utilised by Accenture and you will
need to contact Accenture for details of any sub contracts they have let and their payments
during the period.
RPA has a contract with Infoterra for mapping services and a copy of the Infoterra contract
is included at Annex C.
Payments made to Accenture and Infoterra under these contracts are shown in Table 1
below.
TABLE 1: Payments made to Accenture and Infoterra

YEAR
ACCENTURE
£ m
INFOTERRA
£ m
TOTAL
£ m
2003-04 14.10 1.20 15.30
2004-05 10.20 0.70 10.90
2005-06 18.40 3.70 22.10
TOTAL 42.70 5.60 48.30
Additionally, RPA’s Infrastructure Services (IS) have many other contracts supporting
infrastructure and applications many of which have some applicability to SPS functions.
The IS annual expenditure is published in RPA’s Annual Accounts. The totals are shown in
Table 2 below for ease of reference.
TABLE 2: IS Annual Expenditure
YEAR £ 000
2005-06 Not yet published
2004-05 62,484
2003-04 40,813
2002-03 23,127
2001-02 21,816
Copies of the full Annual Reports and Accounts can be found at the following web address:
www.rpa.gov.uk. You should follow the links “about RPA” then “plan, reports and other key
documents”.
The IS budget is managed centrally and is not apportioned to business areas. Therefore it
is not possible to extract complete IT costs associated exclusively with the SPS for the
period requested without utilising an excessively high level of resources. This information is
therefore exempt from disclosure under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
which states that there is an exemption where costs of compliance exceed the appropriate
limit.
I have included for factual information a recent answer to Parliamentary Question (PQ)
4835 05/06 which provides further information about IS contracts for 2005/6 and a copy is
marked as Annex D. This PQ should provide an indication of the number of IS contracts
that support RPA in the delivery of all aspects of its business.
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish
to make a complaint, you should write to Peter Crewe, Head of Chief Executive’s Office at
RPA, Kings House, 33 Kings Road, Reading, RG1 3BU, within 40 working days, who will
arrange for an internal review of your case.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can
be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the
reference number above in any future communications.
Yours sincerely
David Joyce
ATI Unit Manager