Cleaning contracts 874/2025

FOI Reference: 874/2025

Request

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act regarding contracts awarded by your organisation.

Please focus on contracts awarded aligning these codes 90910000 - Cleaning services and 90911200 - Building-cleaning services.

1. What is the total value of the contract awarded to the successful bidder?
2. What is the duration of the contract, including start and end dates?
3. If the contract is subject to an extension please specify whether the option to apply the extension has been taken.
4. Please confirm when contract will be next put to competitor tender
5. What are the specific services or products provided under this contract?
6. What were the criteria used to select the contractor?
7. How many bids were received for this contract?
8. Who won the contract and can you provide a copy of the winning bid proposal?

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested for Q1 – Q7,  as outlined below.

Response Q1

£2,408,638

Response Q2

2 years 8 months

28/05/2023 – 27/01/2026

Response Q3

All extension options have been taken.

Response Q4

The next contract has recently been advertised for tender and is progressing through the approval process.  This will be awarded September 2025 to commence January 2026

Response Q5

Office Cleaning; Consumables, Ad hoc specialist cleaning

Response Q6

This contract was previously tendered by our then Facility Management provider CBRE, and novated to the Force. Dyfed-Powys Police do not hold the selection criteria utilised.

Response Q7

 This contract was previously tendered by our then Facility Management provider CBRE, and novated to the Force. Dyfed-Powys Police do not hold the number of bids received.

Response Q8

Dyfed-Powys Police are unable to provide the winning bid proposal as this information is exempt by virtue of Section 43(2) Commercial Sensitivity.

Please see below for the full legislative explanation.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 creates a statutory right of access to information held by public authorities. A public authority in receipt of a request must, if permitted, state under Section 1(a) of the Act, whether it holds the requested information and, if held, then communicate that information to the applicant under Section 1(b) of the Act.

The right of access to information is not without exception and is subject to a number of exemptions which are designed to enable public authorities to withhold information that is unsuitable for release.
Importantly the Act is designed to place information into the public domain, that is, once access to information is granted to one person under the Act, it is then considered public information and must be communicated to any individual should a request be received.

DECISION

This letter serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Section 17 of the Act provides:

(1) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is to any extent relying on a claim that information is exempt information must, within the time for complying with Section 1(1), give the applicant a notice which:-

(a) states the fact,
(b) specifies the exemption in question, and
(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

REASONS FOR DECISION

The reason that we are unable to provide you with this information is covered by the following exemption(s):

Section 43(2) Commercial Interests

Section 43 is a qualified, class based exemption. I am therefore required to conduct a public interest test weighing disclosure against non-disclosure.

Factors favouring disclosure
Disclosure of unit price would adhere to the general principle of openness and transparency and provide a better awareness to the general public that public funds are being spent appropriately, responsibly and that Forces negotiate the best contracts possible.

Factors favouring non-disclosure
A competitive procurement process is undertaken to obtain pricing from all bidders which they are evaluated on. This is used to determine the winning bidder and if the winning bid proposal and a cost breakdown was disclosed it would influence future bids when the service is re-tendered. This would impact on forces being able to negotiate the best contracts possible. Interests of businesses would also be jeopardised as competitors would be able to amend their bids, gaining an unfair advantage.

Balancing test
When balancing, I must weigh the strongest reason for disclosure, which in this case is the use of public funds, against the strongest reason for non-disclosure, which in this case are interests of businesses. I consider that the interests of the businesses to amount to a more influential reason, and therefore I will not be disclosing this information.

It should be noted that as a result of the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such information that the information released may or may not be accurate.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 05/09/2025)