Travel expenses of the External Relations Minister (FOI)

​Request

Over the past five years please can I have details of the amount claimed in travel expenses by the Brexit Minister/ External Relations Minister and his advisors? Ideally, in six month increments please.

By way of explanation:

• I would like to know the travel and accommodation expenses claimed by the Brexit Minister/ External Relations Minister. Please can you also quantify the number of trips as well over the past five years, preferably in six months increments.

• I would also like to know the same for the States of Jersey staff members accompanying the Brexit Minister / External Relations Minister on such trips.

Response

In 2016 the Chief Minister’s Department conducted a review of the States of Jersey’s policies and processes for claiming travel expenses. Further to the review, the Chief Minister announced that spending on travel costing more than £500 would be published regularly from the first quarter of 2017.

Figures pre-dating 2016, which include destinations and specific detail, can be located through the following link:

Pre 2016 travel expenses

Figures for June 2016 to December 2017, which include destinations and specific detail, can be located through the following link:

Cost of travel over £500

Figures for 2018, in line with the above will be made available on opendata.gov.je, with a view to publication by the Department for Treasury and Exchequer within Q1 2019.

The request asks for travel expenses and details of trips out of Jersey for the External Relations Minister and his accompanying staff for a number of years. The parameters are therefore broad, in that the accompanying staff could include the majority of the staff of the Ministry of External Relations, including the overseas office. It could also include members of staff from other departments who have accompanied the External Relations Minister – for example, members of the Financial Services Unit.

To retrieve and extract the information required to provide further breakdown for the last five years would exceed the cost limit provisions allowed under article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 and the 12.5 hours maximum allowed under regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014.

Articles applied

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

Article 23 Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.

Article 36 Information intended for future publication

(1) Information is qualified exempt information if, at the time when the request for the information is made, the information is being held by a public authority with a view to its being published within 12 weeks of the date of the request.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant –

(a) of the date when the information will be published;

(b) of the manner in which it will be published; and

(c) by whom it will be published.

(3) In this Article, “published” means published –

(a) by a public authority; or

(b) by any other person.