FOI 8-23: Electric vehicle car charging network
Information Standards Freedom of Information Response
Our Ref: FOI 8-23
27 April 2023
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”)
I am writing to confirm that the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission (Assembly Commission) has processed your request dated 17 April 2023 in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In your request, you asked:
“I'm interested in the sale of the state-owned public EV car charging network ("e-cars NI") to the private sector and I have the following questions.
i) Which part(s) of the NI Government had responsibility for the initial setup of the network, its management and its subsequent sale or transfer?
ii) Approximately, how much funding was received from bodies external to the NI Government, e.g. EU funding? Please breakdown and make clear which are asset or capital costs and which are running costs over the period of setup and ownership until transfer.
iii) Approximately, how much funding was provided by the NI Government? Please breakdown and make clear which are asset or capital costs and which are running costs over the period of setup and ownership until transfer.
iv) What was the approximate asset value of the network prior to its sale or transfer from public ownership?
v) Who or what group within the relevant part of the NI Government made the decision to sell or transfer the network? Could I have minutes from the relevant meetings, please.
vi) What policy or procedure was followed with regards to the sale of the network? Can I have a copy?
vii) On the assumption that this was an open sale or offer, can you advise where and when the sale was advertised?
viii) Again, on the previous assumption, can you advise how many responses to the sale were received?
ix) Can I have a copy of the minutes of the meeting of the relevant body or group where the successful bidder was agreed?
x) Can the new owner of the network be confirmed and the date ownership was transferred to the organisation?”
The Assembly Commission does not hold information in relation to your request.
However, Members of the Assembly may have asked Assembly Questions of Ministers about this subject, and may have received answers that refer to this information. All Assembly questions, and the answers received, are published on the Assembly’s website in a searchable database.
In order to provide advice and assistance under section 16 of the FOIA, you may wish to make an FOI request to the Department for Infrastructure directly at dfiimu@infrastructure-ni.gov.uk.
You have the right to request a formal review by the Assembly Commission and if you wish to do so, please write to me at the above address. If after such an internal review you are still unhappy with the response, you may appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF which will undertake an independent review.
The Assembly Commission may publish details of your FOI request and its official response within the organisational disclosure log. The request will be completely anonymised and you will not be identified in any way. This is to meet the requirements as laid out by in the agreed publication scheme with the Information Commissioners’ Office.
Yours sincerely
INFORMATION STANDARDS
