FOI requests received and responses issued as at 11 May 2015 (FOI)

Request

Please could you detail all Freedom of Information requests that you have received to date (this request was received on 11 May 2015), but for one reason or another that you have not answered as yet or were unable to provide an answer and have not been published? Your disclosure page only shows published answers.

Response

The table below details the number of requests received, that were being prepared and which have not (or had not yet been) published on the disclosure log on the States of Jersey public website up to 11 May 2015*.

The Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 does not require the States of Jersey to publish any or all requests and responses. However, we aim to publish requests and responses as we consider it good practice and in the interests of openness to do so.

The States of Jersey is required under the FOI legislation to respond to all requests within 20 working days. Any request received within the 20 working days prior to 11 May may not have been answered or published because the information was being prepared for response.

No request or response will be published before it is issued to an applicant. It would not be fair to an applicant to have their request and response published, or issued to another applicant, before they themselves have received our response.

All applicants are notified that their request and its response may be published on an online disclosure log.

Other reasons that may affect answering or publishing a response may include:

• when a request for third party personal data is received, the request is handled under FOI legislation but Data Protection principles then apply which may affect our decision to publish;
• when an applicant sends a request for their own personal data. The applicant is contacted and advised that the request will be converted to a Subject Access Request and handled under the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005;
• when an incoming request contains personal details of the applicant or someone else and so publishing a request and / or response may identify someone. Some requests contain so many personal details of the applicant that they could not be published, as significant redaction would provide no content of any meaning or relevance to the public. Jersey is a small community where it may be easy to identify applicants and others from information in requests; careful consideration of each response has to be made prior to publishing as the States of Jersey is committed to protecting personal privacy;
•  when the information asked for is already in the public domain e.g. already available on the States of Jersey website;
• when the request is a repeat request and is identical or significantly similar to a request already received, answered or published on the disclosure log;
• where an extension to the 20 working days of time required to respond to an FOI request is sought from an applicant and this extension has not yet expired;
• where a clarification to a request is sought by the Central FOI Unit but there is no subsequent response from an applicant;
• where an internal review has been requested prior to publishing on the disclosure log and the outcome is unknown;
• where there may be business constraints or overriding departmental priorities that affect the timing of adding content to the disclosure log;
• where there are one or more exemptions that apply under FOI legislation to the release of information.