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Commissioner Orders Release of Glasgow Tender Information

The Scottish Information Commissioner has ordered Glasgow City Council to release details of the successful bid for its Street Outreach Service for the homeless.

The bid, jointly made by the charities Glasgow Simon Community and Barnardo's, must be released in full following the Commissioner's refusal to accept that disclosure would damage the commercial interests of the bidders or reveal a trade secret.

The Commissioner found that much of the withheld information simply described the service to be offered, while any financial information was specific to the particular service in question and would therefore be unlikely to assist a competitor in any future tendering process.

The Commissioner also refused to accept Glasgow City Council's claim that the tender document constituted a trade secret. He found nothing unique or secret about the tender and noted that the manner in which the service was provided would be visible to anyone coming into contact with it.

Kevin Dunion, the Scottish Information Commissioner, said: "An interesting feature of this case is that it involved charities competing for a contract with a public authority.

"I found that the information did involve the commercial interests of Barnardo's and Glasgow Simon Community but I could not accept the Council's claims that these interests would be substantially harmed by release, particularly as much of the information was either already publicly known, or would shortly become so. In any case I took the view that it would be in the public interest for details of the successful tender to be made known."

The tender information was requested under freedom of information by Streetwork, another charity involved in the provision of homeless services. More information can be found on the Information Commission's website.