Request ID: FOI-1814-2223 Date published: 21 November 2022
You asked
we would be grateful if you could please confirm whether or not Magnolia Air and Magnolia Building both operated on a unified basis on TFL Projects and they extent with which they did so. In particular, it would be helpful if you could confirm who was the following in respect of any contracts (with either Magnolia BS or Magnolia Air), for works carried out during the period of January 2017 to March 2021:
1. The initial contracting party;
2. The contractors involved in providing the services;
3. Any transfer/novation of the contracts;
4. The names of any contacts and which company they purported to act for;
5. Which company performed the services; at any stage of the projects
6. Who was paid for the services provided
We would also be grateful to receive any copies of the contracts or supporting documentation, and for your confirmation that you are happy to provide a witness statement confirming the information disclosed above.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-1814-2223
Thank you for your request received on 25 October 2022 asking for information about Magnolia Building Services Limited.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require.
In order for us to provide full and complete disclosure in this matter to the Court, we would be grateful if you could please confirm whether or not Magnolia Air and Magnolia Building both operated on a unified basis on TFL Projects and they extent with which they did so. In particular, it would be helpful if you could confirm who was the following in respect of any contracts (with either Magnolia BS or Magnolia Air), for works carried out during the period of January 2017 to March 2021:
1. The initial contracting party
We can confirm that Magnolia Air and Magnolia Building both operated on an individual entity basis on TfL Projects. They worked on a number of civil and electrical projects. The contracting entity for TfL was London Underground Limited.
2. The contractors involved in providing the services; 3. Any transfer/novation of the contracts; 4. The names of any contacts and which company they purported to act for; 5. Which company performed the services; at any stage of the projects 6. Who was paid for the services provided
We would also be grateful to receive any copies of the contracts or supporting documentation, and for your confirmation that you are happy to provide a witness statement confirming the information disclosed above.
Unfortunately, to provide the remaining information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the FOI (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
The information you have requested is not recorded centrally but will be included in the Purchase Orders for the works carried out. There have been 89 Purchase Orders to both Magnolia Companies for the period 2017 to 2022. The requested information would need to be identified and extracted from each of these. In addition to the time taken to extract this information, due to the low value of the contracts the supporting documentation and contracts are not held in our central records store but are filed within the records of each project. These would also need to be identified, located, and retrieved in order to provide the information.
This matter relates to current court proceedings which will be governed by the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). Your client will be able to obtain the documents from the entities concerned pursuant to the processes set out in the CPR.
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. If you want to refine your request or make a FOI Act request in future, please bear in mind that the FOI Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. You might also consider limiting your request to a narrower period of time.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.
Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.
In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
