DEFA Procurement of Carbon Literacy Training

Summary

The requester sought details on the procurement timeline, budget, and correspondence regarding Carbon Literacy training awarded to Earthscope. The authority disclosed the training provider, budget figures, payment status, and staff attendance statistics, while citing that procurement process details were already publicly accessible.

Key Facts

• Earthscope was the training organization supporting the delivery of Carbon Literacy training.
• The total budget for the training was set at £26,500.
• As of the response date, £7,556.99 had been paid to the training organization.
• A total of 46 staff members across various public bodies attended the training.
• The training represented a total of 360 working hours.

Data Disclosed

• £26,500
• £7,556.99
• 46
• 360
• 17 January 2024
• 5 February 2024
• 3623489
• 18
• 2
• 1
• 6
• 4
• 3

Exemptions Cited

• Section 20 of the Act (Information already reasonably accessible)

Original Request

Please supply a time line of the Quick Quote process that resulted in 'Earthscope' being awarded a 'Carbon Literacy' contract. This should include all internal emails and papers showing how the idea came about, who came up with it and the chain of command the project passed through. It should also show how the budget was decided, what the budget was set at and how that project was constrcuted. I also wish to know how the money was requested from the relevant government fund including ALL dates when these requests and approvals were made and given. How many firms tendered for the contract? Did any person declare a conflict of interest when dealing with the project / tender? Did any person recuse themselves from the process of the tender? Please supply a copy of all correspondence and any other document on file including file notes, between the 'Net Zero' team and Earthscope or any of its principals (Sarah Mercer and Matthew Warren). "Net Zero Team" in this request will include any other officer in DEFA who has any involvement in this matter including senior management team and the Minister / Members.

Data Tables (12)

Full Response Text

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator Corporate Services Directorate Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road, St John’s, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS Tel no (01624) 685854 Fax no (01624 685851 Email: defa@gov.im www.gov.im

Our ref: 3623489 5 February 2024

Dear ###

We write further to your request, received 17 January 2024, which states:

"Please supply details of the procurement process of any training for Carbon Literacy. The names of any training organisations or individuals, the amount budgeted, and paid to date, to those parties. Please also supply details of the number of members of staff for each department who have attended Carbon literacy training, how many working hours this represents."

Our response to your request is as follows: I have detailed below the information that is being released to you.

Q1 - Please supply details of the procurement process of any training for Carbon Literacy.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under section 20 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you, whether free of charge or on payment of a fee. All of the information that you have requested regarding the procurement process and electronic tendering can be found on page 146-157 here: https://www.gov.im/media/1379854/financial-regulations-june-2023- 200623_compressed.pdf
Q2. Please supply the names of any training organisations or individuals, the amount budgeted, and paid to date, to those parties. The name of the training organisation who is supporting the delivery of the training is Earthscope. The training toolkit and materials were from the Carbon Literacy Project. The budget for Carbon Literacy training is £26,500 with the amount paid to date, to the training organisation is £7,556.99.

Q3. Please supply details of the number of members of staff for each Department who have attended Carbon literacy training. The number of staff for each public body who have attended Carbon Literacy training is shown in the below breakdown. Public body: Attended IOM Post
2 FIU
1 MNH
6 DESC
2 Treasury
1 DOI
4 Manx Radio 3 Cabinet Office 3 AGC
1 DHSC
1 HCTP (Health Care Transformation Programme) 1 DFE
2 DEFA 18 TOTAL 46

Q4. Please supply details of how many working hours this represents.

The number of working hours this represents is 360.

Please quote the reference number 3623489 in any future communications.

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 or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. 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 2015; or

1. 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 right to a review can be found 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 www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

From: Sarah Mercer To: Foster, Jade; Lewin, Aly Subject: Cancellation of carbon literacy today Date: 18 June 2024 00:22:34 Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.  Hello both, Just to let you know both Matthew and I have come down with the flu this evening, so have had the cancel tomorrow's session. We've asked that everyone rebook onto July's cohort. Huge apologies, and we will keep on top of it! Sarah  From: Sarah Mercer To: Foster, Jade; Lewin, Aly Subject: Carbon Literacy Events Launched till August 2025! Date: 27 September 2024 11:35:00 Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.  Hello! Please see the links for CL open cohort sessions from now till August 2025. The links below allow you to book onto any of the online or in person courses from the same link, so we don't need to provide different links each month. Aboo! ONLINE Carbon Literacy for IOM Civil Service Part 1 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1028151979247?aff=oddtdtcreator ONLINE Carbon Literacy for IOM Civil Service Part 2 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1028143554047?aff=oddtdtcreator IN PERSON Carbon Literacy for IOM Civil Service Part 1 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1028163493687?aff=oddtdtcreator IN PERSON Carbon Literacy for IOM Civil Service Part 2 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1028170504657?aff=oddtdtcreator We will start promoting shortly. Best wishes Sarah Mercer Co-founder and Director earthscope.im Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin From: Sarah Mercer To: ; Lewin, Aly; Foster, Jade; Matthew Warren Subject: Carbon Literacy training for UCM Date: 06 December 2024 12:18:12 Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.  Hello Just following up with running a training session for UCM. I've copied in Aly and Jade from the Net Zero team for them to share their thoughts. As we discussed it would be better for UCM to book onto existing open cohort sessions (one a month), but if this is really not possible, then a UCM specific session could be arranged. We would be looking for a full cohort if we were to run a UCM specific session (30-40 attendees). Is this still something you are looking for for the end of December? Sarah Mercer Co-founder and Director earthscope.im Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin REDACTED REDACTED From: Matthew Warren To: Foster, Jade Subject: CL Catchup Date: 06 May 2025 13:39:12 Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.  Hi Jade, I'm going to have to leave at the latest at 2:55 today, so I thought I'd just put our updates in an email to speed things along! I'll update you on our CAT collaboration in the meeting, as you might be interested to hear about those developments. Updates: - Course went ahead this morning. We decided not to impose the conditions on this course because it was less than the notice period until the course started. However, we sent an email to attendees asking for them to cancel if they weren't coming and that elicited a couple of cancellations, but still just enough for the course to go ahead. - Bookings for next week number just 5, so we will cancel this run of Part 2, with people invited to book onto the June session. - Should we review offering online at all? We have had such low uptake I'm wondering whether to put it all back in person. - Sarah will send an update on the short course later (apologies, she's dealing with all of these and is currently running a training session!) See you at 2:30! All the best, Matthew -- Matthew Warren Creative Director earthscope.im Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin From: Matthew Warren To: Foster, Jade Cc: Sarah Mercer Subject: COG Carbon Literacy Application Date: 30 January 2025 15:54:02 Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.  Hi Jade, Here's a draft email to send over to COG. Happy to come in and do a session/recap/action plan workshop to implement the pledges/whatever would be helpful!

Dear Chief Officers, It's great to hear that you have a group Carbon Literacy action plan for your applications! Carbon Literacy is an individual accreditation, so to be certified you'll need to complete your own form in your own words.  Please complete the form online by Monday 17th February. Access the form here. Just a reminder that you'll need to complete three sections: 1) Background knowledge - Showing you have basic knowledge about climate change by answering a question about what action needs to be taken (you can talk about here and around the world). 2) Individual action - You'll need to pledge something that you can do on your own (it can affect others, but it needs to be something in your control). 3) Group action - Here's where the group pledge comes in. You'll need to put the pledge and its impacts in your own words as well as specifying what your particular role would be. Let us know if you have any questions and we can't wait to hear what you come up with! Gura mie eu! Matthew and Sarah earthscope.im Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin From: Sarah Mercer To: Foster, Jade; Lewin, Aly Subject: COG Pledge Date: 25 April 2025 21:36:00 Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.  Hellooo, Scott has sent his pledge in and would like us to review it before the rest of COG submit their own and their shared group pledge. I would welcome any thoughts/suggestions on the below group pledge: We are collectively going to embed a quarterly half-day Climate Change workshop into our schedule each year where we will, amongst other things, specifically: • Ensure we have stronger, more coordinated training opportunities available across our respective Departments where our staff can be Carbon Literate and better understand Climate Change; • Review how the Government is tracking in its delivery of Climate Change obligations and commitments; • Explore opportunities for the Government to develop new, innovative ways to address the Climate Change challenge; • Invite key people from across Government, private sector and the NGO community to share insights and ideas, thereby ensuring we are constantly challenging ourselves. Sarah Mercer Co-founder and Director earthscope.im Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin From: Sarah Mercer To: Foster, Jade; Matthew Warren; Lewin, Aly Subject: Deliberative democracy organisations Date: 12 December 2024 23:54:17 Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.  Hello Jade and Aly, Had a great chat with from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics who was on our Deliberative Democracy training we all did the other day and she had a series of organisations she thought we might be interested in. I've popped them below: - https://pol.is/home - https://sciencewise.org.uk/2024/07/celebrating-20-years-of-sciencewise-a-new- programme-in-the-making/ - http://www.hopkinsvanmil.co.uk/ (She really recommended these guys) - https://natcen.ac.uk/our-expertise - https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/training/show.php?article=13821 (training course, looks great, thorough, and affordable) - https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/ (University of Chester have collaborated with these guys previously - https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/learn-others/manifesto- signatory/university-chester) - https://involve-democracy.eu/ - https://demos.co.uk/ - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/britainthinks-trust-in-data Sarah Mercer Co-founder and Director earthscope.im Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin REDACTED From: Lewin, Aly on behalf of Sarah Mercer To: ; Earthscope Isle of Man; Foster, Jade; Matthew Warren; Lewin, Aly Subject: FW: Invitation: Treasury brief @ Mon 29 Apr 2024 14:00 - 15:00 (BST) (aly.lewin2@gov.im) Attachments: invite.ics     -----Original Appointment----- From: Sarah Mercer Sent: 23 April 2024 01:12 To: Sarah Mercer; Earthscope Isle of Man; Foster, Jade; Matthew Warren; Lewin, Aly Subject: Invitation: Treasury brief @ Mon 29 Apr 2024 14:00 - 15:00 (BST) (aly lewin2@gov im) When: 29 April 2024 14:00-15:00 Europe/London Where:   Caution: This email is from an external sender Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links
Treasury brief You have been invited by Sarah Mercer to attend an event named Treasury brief on Monday 29 Apr 2024 ⋅ 14:00 – 15:00 (United Kingdom Time)     When Monday 29 Apr 2024 ⋅ 14:00 – 15:00 (United Kingdom Time) Guests Sarah Mercer   - organiser Earthscope Isle of Man   jade foster@gov im   Matthew Warren <mailto:mjhwarren@gmail com>  aly lewin2@gov im   View all guest info https://calendar google com/calendar/event? action=VIEW&eid=Njg0YjI3NnJyYm1nNXAzMmYwdmwzMXBpNGcgYWx5Lmxld2luMkBnb3YuaW0&tok=Mjkjc2FyYWguZS5tZXJjZXJAZ29vZ2xlbWFpbC5jb201MTg4MzJjN2Y1NWMzM2Q3NjdlNmNlZWRiZjk0MWQyYzQwNmE1MTJl&ctz=Europe%2FLondon&hl=en_GB&es=0 Reply for aly lewin2@gov im Yes https://calendar google com/calendar/event? action=RESPOND&eid=Njg0YjI3NnJyYm1nNXAzMmYwdmwzMXBpNGcgYWx5Lmxld2luMkBnb3YuaW0&rst=1&tok=Mjkjc2FyYWguZS5tZXJjZXJAZ29vZ2xlbWFpbC5jb201MTg4MzJjN2Y1NWMzM2Q3NjdlNmNlZWRiZjk0MWQyYzQwNmE1MTJl&ctz=Europe%2FLondon&hl=en_GB&es=0 No https://calendar google com/calendar/event? action=RESPOND&eid=Njg0YjI3NnJyYm1nNXAzMmYwdmwzMXBpNGcgYWx5Lmxld2luMkBnb3YuaW0&rst=2&tok=Mjkjc2FyYWguZS5tZXJjZXJAZ29vZ2xlbWFpbC5jb201MTg4MzJjN2Y1NWMzM2Q3NjdlNmNlZWRiZjk0MWQyYzQwNmE1MTJl&ctz=Europe%2FLondon&hl=en_GB&es=0 Maybe https://calendar google com/calendar/event? action=RESPOND&eid=Njg0YjI3NnJyYm1nNXAzMmYwdmwzMXBpNGcgYWx5Lmxld2luMkBnb3YuaW0&rst=3&tok=Mjkjc2FyYWguZS5tZXJjZXJAZ29vZ2xlbWFpbC5jb201MTg4MzJjN2Y1NWMzM2Q3NjdlNmNlZWRiZjk0MWQyYzQwNmE1MTJl&ctz=Europe%2FLondon&hl=en_GB&es=0   More options https://calendar google com/calendar/event? action=VIEW&eid=Njg0YjI3NnJyYm1nNXAzMmYwdmwzMXBpNGcgYWx5Lmxld2luMkBnb3YuaW0&tok=Mjkjc2FyYWguZS5tZXJjZXJAZ29vZ2xlbWFpbC5jb201MTg4MzJjN2Y1NWMzM2Q3NjdlNmNlZWRiZjk0MWQyYzQwNmE1MTJl&ctz=Europe%2FLondon&hl=en_GB&es=0   Invitation from Google Calendar https://calendar google com/calendar/ You are receiving this email because you are an attendee of the event To stop receiving future updates for this event, decline this event Forwarding this invitation could allow any

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