Disclosure Log

Road private contractors (FOI/6408)

Message from Nottinghamshire County Council - 02 October 2025

Dear *****

Environmental information request: information withheld – Ref: FOI/00006408

Thank you for your request for information about private contractors hired by your council to undertake pothole repair work, which we received on 4 September 2025.  You requested:

I am submitting a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for details relating to private contractors hired by your council to undertake pothole repair work.
Please provide the following information for each of the financial years 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26 (to date)
1. Private Contractors Used:
  1. Which private contractors or service providers has the council engaged to carry out pothole repair work during each of the above financial years Please list all contractors used in each financial year.
  2. How much has the council paid to each of these contractors for pothole repair services in each of the same financial years
  3. For each contractor listed:
    1. Does (or did) the private contractor subcontract any part of the pothole repair work to third parties If so, please provide the names of any subcontractors involved and if held, the total amount they were paid for the work in each financial year. 
2. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
Please note: This section refers only to the main contractors hired by the council, not their subcontractors.
  1. What Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are included in the contracts or agreements with these private service providers regarding pothole repair performance (e.g. response times, repair durability, inspection pass rates)
  2. For each financial year, please indicate whether each contractor met, partially met or failed to meet these KPIs.
3. Auditing and Quality Control:
Please note: This section refers only to the main contractors hired by the council, not their subcontractors.
  1. Does the council audit or inspect pothole repair work completed by their private contractors  If so, please provide details of the process (e.g. frequency of checks, who conducts them, what criteria are used).
  2. Please also provide the outcomes of these audits for each of the above financial years and whether there were any financial penalties, contract deductions, ended contracts, warnings or performance improvement plans issued as a result of a failed inspection.
I would prefer to receive the requested information in an electronic spreadsheet format (Excel or CSV), where available. If specific information is not available, I would be grateful for any relevant or partial details you are able to provide. If any part of this request is likely to exceed the appropriate cost or time limits under the FOI Act, I would be grateful for advice on how it might be refined. Please feel free to contact me to discuss the scope of the request, if necessary.

Your request seeks detailed information regarding private contractors hired by the council to undertake pothole repair work across five financial years, including contractor names, payments, subcontractor details, performance indicators, and audit outcomes.

After careful consideration, we must advise that your request is refused under Regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR, which allows public authorities to refuse requests that are manifestly unreasonable.  In this case, the refusal is based on the disproportionate burden involved in compiling the information requested under Question 1 of your enquiry.

To provide the level of detail requested—particularly the breakdown of contractors, payments, subcontractor involvement, and associated financial data across multiple years—would require extensive manual collation.  We estimate that fulfilling this part of the request would exceed the equivalent of 18 hours of staff time, which is the appropriate cost limit applied under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and considered a reasonable threshold under the EIR.

We remain committed to transparency and would be happy to assist you in refining your request to bring it within a manageable scope. For example, narrowing the timeframe or focusing on a specific contractor or financial year may allow us to provide meaningful information without incurring excessive cost or time.  It is likely that we would be able to answer your request in full if it were restricted to just two financial years.

Your privacy: we use your personal information such as name and address so that we can comply with our legal obligations to respond to EIR requests.  For further details about the use of information about you, please see the information handling privacy notice on our website at https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/media/4323566/informationgovernanceandinformationrightsprivacynotice.pdf.

If you are unhappy with the way the authority has handled your request, you may ask for an internal review.  Please contact: Complaints and Information – Team Manager, Nottinghamshire County Council, County Hall, Loughborough Road, West Bridgford, NOTTINGHAM, NG2 7QP or [email protected], who will arrange to review your case.  Under regulation 11(2), you must contact us for a review no later than 40 working days after the date of this letter.

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, SK9 5AF or https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/foi-and-eir-complaints/.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me.

Yours sincerely

Colin Sawers (He/Him)
Information Case Officer | Customers, Complaints and Information
Chief Executive"s Department | Nottinghamshire County Council
County Hall | Loughborough Road | West Bridgford | NOTTINGHAM | NG2 7QP
Tel: (0115) 977 3714