Mercedes buses

Summary

A request was made for contracts, shipping manifests, and pricing details regarding Mercedes buses supplied to the Isle of Man Department of Infrastructure. The authority partially refused the request, citing commercial sensitivity and exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act 2015 to protect the financial interests of both the supplier and the public transport service.

Key Facts

• The Department of Infrastructure informed Mercedes-Benz of the request and sought their consent before responding.
• Mercedes-Benz requested withholding information based on commercial sensitivity and confidentiality.
• No published prices exist for full-size buses built to individual specifications.
• The authority concluded that disclosing contract details would prejudice the commercial interests of both parties.
• A public interest test was conducted, weighing transparency against the need to protect commercial interests.

Data Disclosed

• 2017-10-14
• 2017-11-02
• IM106827i
• Jan 1st 2017
• Section 25(2)(b)(i)
• Section 30(2)(b)
• Data Protection Act 2002
• Freedom of Information Act 2015

Exemptions Cited

• Section 25(2)(b)(i) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Data Protection Act 2002 contravention)
• Section 30(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Prejudice to financial interests)

Data Tables (2)

Full Response Text

Department of Infrastructure Sea Terminal Building, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 2RF

FOI Reference No: IM106827i Request Under The Freedom Of Information Act 2015 (“The Act”)

Thank you for your request dated 14 October 2017.

Your request (with clarification in italics)

Please provide the following information

1. A copy of the contract between DOI and Mercedes Benz to supply vehicles for public transport etc. (Please note, if you refuse on the grounds of commercial confidentiality provide the clause from said contract that states under FOI any such request would be withheld)

2. Provide copies of the original shipping manifests detailing ALL Mercedes vehicles supplied to DOI

3. Provide a list of all types of Mercedes Benz vehicles including vehicle registration, type of vehicle, purchase price supplied to DOI

4. Provide a list of all Mercedes Benz vehicle parts, spares etc purchased from Jan 1st 2017 to present date to include total cost

Please provide the information on the Mercedes Benz vehicles that were provided in regard to the DOI bus service contract. Note, this is in reference to ALL vehicles that were provided by Mercedes Benz reference the DOI bus service contract.

Response to your request

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested; the reasons and statutory exemption sections are shown as part of the corresponding answers below.

1. As a courtesy to Mercedes, we informed them of this request for information and asked for their consent. Mercedes have asked us to withhold information on the basis of commercial sensitivity and confidentiality. A copy of their response, with personal data redacted, can be seen in Appendix

Section 25(2)(b)(i) Information is also absolutely exempt information if the information falls within any of paragraphs (a) to (d) of the definition of “data” in section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act 2002, the disclosure of the information to a member of the public (otherwise than under this Act) would contravene any of the data protection principles;

Please note that there are no published prices for any full size bus where they are built to an individual specification for an operator.

We believe that the release of the Mercedes contract documents and pricing information of the purchased vehicles into the public domain would prejudice the commercial interests of both Transport Services and Mercedes. Disclosure of this information would have a direct detriment on both parties’ abilities to participate competitively in future vehicle sales and acquisition, and in the reputation of, and business confidence in both parties. Accordingly, we have applied an exemption under section 30(2)(b) to this information.

Under Section 30(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015, information is qualified exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the financial interests of a person (including the public authority holding it). (Usually relating to the commercial trading activity they undertake e.g. ongoing sale or purchase of goods and services for the purposes of revenue generation, within a competitive environment).

Section 30(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act is a qualified exemption and therefore subject to a public interest test and a prejudice test.

The outcome of the prejudice test was as follows: Mercedes-Benz has supplied Transport Services with a fleet of bespoke buses and the details of the contract and prices were subject to negotiation.
As such, the detail and costings of the purchased fleet are commercially sensitive. Mercedes-Benz’s commercial interests would be affected by disclosure if details of the purchase and costings of the fleet were seen to be more favourable to Transport Services than those offered by Mercedes to purchasers of similar fleets. The commercial interests of Transport Services would also be affected, if the terms and costs of purchase of the fleet were found to be significantly less favourable than prospective competitors would have offered to Transport Services in future.

In assessing where the public interest lies, the following factors have been considered.

In favour of disclosure:

 Likely to improve public confidence in the degree to which Transport Services has purchased a bus fleet that is value for money.  Likely to improve the degree to which business can respond to Public Sector opportunities.  Likely to improve public awareness of how public money is being spent.

In favour of maintaining the exemption and withholding the information:

 The need to protect the commercial interests of the private sector in general and Mercedes- Benz in particular. The recognition of the role that protection of private sector commercial interests has in the general health of the economy.

 The need to protect the commercial interests of the public sector in general and Transport Services in particular. The recognition of the role that protection of public sector commercial interests has in the wider context of the public interest.
 The possibility that disclosure of the information would result in financial instability.

Having balanced the factors in favour of disclosure with the factors in favour of maintaining the exemption, we consider that the exemption under Section 30(2)(b) currently outweighs the public interest in disclosure for this request.

1. The vehicles are purchased from Evo Bus (UK) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercedes Benz. The invoices are paid in £ Sterling and are subject to UK VAT. As such, no shipping manifests are used as they are booked on the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company sailings as motor vehicles.

2. Appendix 2 contains a list of all Mercedes-Benz vehicles that were provided with regard to the DOI bus service contract, along with their registration numbers. Pricing information has been withheld under Section 30(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015, for the reasons already stated above.

Under Section 30(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015, information is qualified exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the financial interests of a person (including the public authority holding it). (Usually relating to the commercial trading activity they undertake e.g. ongoing sale or purchase of goods and services for the purposes of revenue generation, within a competitive environment).

1. In this instance, we do not hold information in a format that allows us to answer this question accurately, without extensive analysis. Transport Services orders vehicle parts from several suppliers for its entire fleet, which includes Vauxhall, Ford, Renault, Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat vehicles as well as Mercedes-Benz. Parts can sometimes be used on several makes of vehicles.

Under section 11(2)(b) of the Act – a practical refusal reason referencing s8(3), the Act states that “a public authority is not required to create or derive information form the information that it holds; undertake research into, or analysis of, information that it hold; or undertake substantial compilation or collation of information that it holds”.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your Freedom of Information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically to foi.doi@gov.im or by delivery/post to The FOI Co-ordinator, Department of Infrastructure, Sea Terminal Buildings, Douglas, IM1 2RF. An electronic version and paper version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at www.gov.im/foireview

Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on;

1 Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act; or

2 Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.

In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your rights to review is on the Information Commissioner’s website at: www.inforights.im/

Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Further information about Freedom of Information requests can be found at https://www.gov.im/about-the-government/freedom-of-information/

APPENDIX 1 Domicile and Court of Registry: England & Wales Commercial Register No.: 02882442 Board of Directors: Roman Biondi (Chairman), Michael Thielmann (Managing Director) Board of Management: Michael Thielmann (CEO), Michal Chylinski (CFO), Marcus Watts, Andrew Howes If you are not the addressee, please inform us immediately that you have received this e-mail by mistake, and delete it. We thank you for your support.

APPENDIX 2 Mercedes Fleet as at 1st June 2017 Registration Number Make and Type MAN 93F Mercedes-Benz Atego MMN 101L Mercedes-Benz Citaro K MMN 102L Mercedes-Benz Citaro K MMN 103L Mercedes-Benz Citaro K MMN 104L Mercedes-Benz Citaro K KMN 201L Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 202L Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 203L Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 204L Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 205L Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 206L Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 207L Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 208L Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 209L Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 210L Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 211L Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 213U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 214U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 215U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 216U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 217U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 218U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 219U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 220U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 221U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 222U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 223U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 KMN 224U Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 LMN 225D Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 LMN 226H Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 LMN 227H Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 LMN 228H Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 LMN 229H Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 LMN 230H Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 LMN 231M Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530 LMN 103J Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 854L Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 855L Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 856L Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 857L Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 858L Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 859L Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 860L Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 861L Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 862T Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 863T Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 864T Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 865T Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 866T Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 867T Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 881B Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 882B Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MMN 883B Mercedes-Benz Sprinter KMN 225L Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 516 KMN 455H Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 516 KMN 898J Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 516 LMN 613E Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 519 LMN 832P Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 519 MMN 104T Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 519 MMN 112F Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 519 MMN 113F Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 519 MMN 125T Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 519 MMN 452D Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 519 NMN 107A Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 519 NMN 116A Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 519 MAN 41H Mercedes-Benz Sprinter City 45 MAN 42H Mercedes-Benz Sprinter City 45 MAN 43H Mercedes-Benz Sprinter City 45 MMN 144G Mercedes-Benz Sprinter City 45 MMN 145G Mercedes-Benz Sprinter City 45