The DSD have finally provided me with the information I requested back in October (although they seem to have internally classed the request date as 9 November!) relating to the awarding of the department’s advertising account (including design and placement of advertising, event management, PR, marketing, and general communications support) to Navigator Blue back in 2002.

Although they have provided much of the information relating to this, they have withheld the original tender documents and the costing and pricing information – again citing Section 41 – Information Provided in Confidence.

They say that they have consulted Navigator Blue, who do not consent to the information being released. There is no comment to say whether they likewise checked with Anderson Spratt, AV Browne, or GCAS, (who were also shortlisted), or any of other firms who may have replied to the tender but were not shortlisted.

All of the notes from the various pitches made by these firms have been provided, as well as emails discussing why some of them were unsuccessful, but names of the companies have been redacted from each. (So I can’t tell yet which of them was listed as seeming “a bit naive” on PR!)

My appeal will presumably be almost identical to the one made to DETI.

Incidentally, this was the definitely the best presentation of material in response to an FoI request from one of these departments! Although they didn’t supply any of the information electronically, they separated the material into 24 sections of documents, each of which was in a clear plastic folder, all neatly bound together. Most of the other departments just dumped a pile of several hundred documents in an envelope and posted them!