31.7.1 The underlying principle is that as much information in a central Government contract as possible should be placed on Contracts Finder (other arrangements are made for local authorities) and only information which is specifically identified as commercially sensitive by the parties in the contract or identified and justified by the Authority as sensitive for public interest (including national security) reasons should be excluded. The parties should aim to achieve a pragmatic balance between the public sector's interest in transparency and the need for commercial confidentiality.
31.7.2 The Authority should make it clear at the start of a procurement that it is its intention to make the final Contract available to any relevant public sector body (e.g. the NHS Executive) in accordance with the assumptions of the FOIA (see Section 31.6 (Government Transparency)). Access, however, to commercially sensitive information will be restricted in line with the particular confidentiality restrictions within the final Contract.
31.7.3 After short-listing, the Authority should negotiate with bidders as early as possible to define the scope of the information to be treated as commercially sensitive. The Authority should also agree with bidders when commercially sensitive matters will become non-sensitive to ensure maximum disclosure. Contracts should be structured to facilitate easy removal of commercially sensitive elements.
31.7.4 The focus for whether information should be agreed to be "commercially sensitive" should be on disclosure causing real prejudice to the interests (legal and/or commercial) of a party.