FOI release

FOI - IT related enquiry

Updated 18 December 2023

Applies to England and Wales

Our ref: FOI/108256

Date: 24 May 2023

1. Request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your email, received on 26 April 2023, in which you requested information from the office of the Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA) under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 entitles you to:

  • know whether the information you have requested is held by the PCA; and

  • be provided with that information, subject to any exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which may apply.

You have requested the following information (I have added the numbering for ease of reference):

1) The duration of time utilising cloud infrastructure

2) The criteria used to choose a cloud provider

3) The percentage of infrastructures employing cloud services

4) The supplier of cloud infrastructures used. (AWS/Oracle/Azure etc)

5) Case studies highlighting the successful implementation of the ‘Cloud-first’ strategy

6) The uptime of the cloud infrastructure

7) The annual budget over the last five years for IT-managed services

8) Please provide the percentage spent on cloud-managed services

In respect of your enquiries numbered above as 1-6 and 8, the PCA does not hold this information. In the interests of providing advice and assistance the PCA is an arm’s length body of the Department for Business and Trade (formerly the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) and is provided with assistance pursuant to the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 including the provision to the PCA of technology services, which itself includes cloud infrastructure where appropriate.

In respect of your enquiry numbered above as 7, I have interpreted your query as a request for the PCA’s annual expenditure for IT services handled or managed by a third party over the past 5 years. The PCA does hold this information. This information is published in the PCA’s Annual Report and Accounts (available to view on the PCA’s website). This total expenditure was as follows:

Year     Annual spend as published in the PCA’s annual reports (£)
2021-2022 64,118
2020-2021 84,067
2019-2020 77,604
2018-2019 81,575
2017-2018 79,005

If you do not believe that the office of the PCA has provided an appropriate response to your request, as set out above, you are entitled to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original request and should be made in writing, quoting the above reference, to

[email protected] or:

PCA

4th Floor

23 Stephenson Street

Birmingham B2 4BJ

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.