FOI 0411-2024/25 Microsoft Licensing Statement

Request
Q1. I request that you supply me with a copy of North Yorkshire Police’s (NYP) most recent Microsoft Licensing Statement (MLS). I am not requesting this information to generate any business. We are not looking to buy, or, sell software licences, as we are no longer trading. We only want to understand how the forces Microsoft portfolio has evolved over the years and what (if any), perpetual licences are still owned.

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.  

Decision
I am exempting this information pursuant to Section 31 and Section 43 of the Freedom of Informaton Act 2000 (the Act). Please see the below exemption explanation.

Exemption Explanation

Section 17 of the Act requires North Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies. Please see the exemption explanations below.

Section 31 – Law Enforcement
Section 31 is a prejudice-based qualified exemption and there is a requirement to articulate the harm as well as carrying out a public interest test.

Evidence of Harm
As you may be aware, disclosure under FOIA is a release to the public at large. Whilst not questioning the motives of the applicant, releasing information pertaining to systems and number of servers may highlight security vulnerabilities, allowing criminals to note what capacity and tactical capabilities the force had, allowing them to target specific areas of the UK to conduct their criminal activities. This would lead to an increase in harm and compromise Law Enforcement. This would be to the detriment of providing an efficient policing service and a failure in providing a duty of care to all members of the public.

Information that undermines the operational integrity of the police will adversely affect public safety and have a negative impact on both national security and law enforcement.

Public Interest Test
Factors favouring disclosure S31(1)(a)(b) - There is a public interest in transparency when any request is made for police information.

Releasing this information would provide an insight into the police resources and enable the public to have a better understanding of the effectiveness of the police.

It would show how public funds are being spent in relation to protecting the public.

Factors against disclosure S31(1)(a)(b) 
The security of the public and the country is of paramount importance and the Police service will not divulge the resources, if to do so would place the safety of individuals at risk, due to providing freely available (single point) information under such requests and which in turn would compromise law enforcement.

Whilst there is a public interest in the transparency of policing resources and providing assurance that the police service is appropriately prepared and effectively engaging with the threat posed by various groups or individuals, there is a very strong public interest in safeguarding the integrity of police resources and operations in the highly sensitive areas such as extremism, crime prevention, public disorder, and terrorism prevention.

Overall Balance Test
Having considered your request, North Yorkshire Police accepts that there is a public interest in transparency when any request is made for police information. The public interest favouring release must however be balanced against any associated risk and/or prejudice that would be caused through disclosure.

Having carefully considered this, I have found that releasing North Yorkshire Police’s Microsoft Licensing Statement would or would be likely to reveal potential security vulnerabilities which could be specifically targeted by those with criminal intent, thereby compromising Law Enforcement. Given this I have found that the release of this information is not in the public interest at this time.

Section 43 – Commercial Interests
This is a qualified, class based exemption, which requires that I conduct a public interest test to balance the legitimate interests of the public in knowing the information against the interests of non-disclosure. This exemption applies because the disclosure of the requested information would, or would be likely to, prejudice commercial interests.

Public Interest Test
Factors Favouring Disclosure
There is a strong public interest in the efficiency of public sector spending. Releasing the information would provide the public with the knowledge on what the force spend on the subject matter. Disclosure would provide openness, displaying that public funds are being spent correctly and efficiently.

Factors Favouring Non-Disclosure
Disclosure of this information into the public domain would likely deter suppliers from entering future tendering processes and it would put their competition at advantage. This would also impact North Yorkshire Police’s and other force’s ability to conduct fair tendering. Trust would be lost in the forces ability to conduct business and the community would be affected by the force being unable to spend public funds as effectively.

Overall Balance Test
The disclosure of commercially sensitive information would prejudice the commercial interests of the company involved and may deter them and others from participating in future procurement initiatives. There is a strong public interest against disclosure where that disclosure would be likely to prejudice the Force’s own commercial interests. Disclosure of the information would be likely to adversely affect the bargaining position of North Yorkshire Police during future contractual negotiations relating to current and future contracts which would result in less effective use of public money.

The public interest would not be served where disclosure of commercial information would hinder fair and open competition for public sector contracts. As such the balance is considered in favour of non-disclosure.

Pursuant to Section 17(1) of the Act this acts as a Refusal Notice in relation to your request.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.