Taxi and private hire cab costs (FOI)​

Request

Please provide details of travel costs accrued by the States of Jersey's Chief Executive, Director Generals, Group Directors and Directors in each department.

A

Across the States of Jersey, how much has been spent on taxis and private hire cabs in 2018?

B

Of that, how much has been spent by the States Chief Executive?

C

Please outline what on-island travel arrangements are in place for civil servants, including the Chief Executive, Director Generals, Group Directors and Directors, across the States of Jersey? (eg access to fuel or taxi accounts, reimbursement of bus fares, parking and car back services and so on).

Response

Please note:

i) It is not possible to split the information to show those travel costs accrued by only States of Jersey's Chief Executive, Director Generals, Group Directors and Directors in each department. To extract this information 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. The below figures therefore include all members of States of Jersey staff and third party costs.

ii) In order to remain within the time allowed for response, these figures have been extracted from the ledger codes specifically for taxi fares.

iii) The below figures include taxi costs spent both on and off island.

iv) As the new departmental structure was only in place for part of the year, the old titles have been used. Due to the transfer of various business units and functions, the below is an approximation of spend by Department.

A

Total spend on taxis and private hire in 2018 was £143,188.10 (including £50,591.61 of patient transport and £19,231.22 of transport for children with special needs).

*Amounts paid to drivers for children with special educational needs.

B

Of the spend detailed in response A, £944.03 was in relation to the Chief Executive Officer. This amount was in relation to 33 trips, for the majority of which the Chief Executive Officer was not the sole passenger.

This amount is included within the Chief Minister’s Department total in the table above.

C

The States of Jersey Financial Direction in relation to Travel and Accommodation is attached.

Financial Direction Travel and Accommodation

Article referenced

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.