Land Registry and Digimap (FOI)

Request

Please can I have the following information regarding the Land Registry and Digital Mapping Access?

A

The current contract held by the States of Jersey with Digimap for selling and distributing the mapping data.

B

The date of contract expiry of the above contract / "mapping business partnership" with Digimap.

C

Is there any ability to access the Jersey Land Property Index (JLPI) without payments to a third party (Digimap).

D

Any correspondence since 1 January 2012 regarding changes to the pricing and public access to the JLPI.

E

The number of times the government has provided free access to individuals or companies to the JLPI and Jersey Digital Mapping data for each year in the last five years.

Response

A

As the Business Partnership contract expires this year and a tender process will be commenced Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

B

8 November 2019.

C

The Business Partner Digimap has been granted an exclusive licence to act as a reselling agent for the Gazetteer (JPLI).

It is the responsibility of the Geographic Information System (GIS) Service board (formally the Management Board) to agree a tariff structure and data exchange policy for the provision of the GIS products to, and the sharing of data amongst, private and public sector customers. If a specific to individuals or companies wants to access the JLPI without payments to a third party (Digimap) this can be requested to be discussed at the GIS Service board meetings.

D

The current price list is available on Digimap’s website at the following link:

Digimap Jersey data prices

Any increase in the Annual Licence Fee for the Gazetteer (JPLI) for any twelve month period cannot exceed the increase in the Retail Prices Index for that period.

All changes to pricing and public access to the Jersey Land and Property Index are discussed at the GIS Service board only. Meetings of the GIS Service board are confidential between the parties.

E

The Business Partner, Digimap, has been granted an exclusive licence to act as a reselling agent for the Gazetteer (JPLI). The government has not provided any individuals or companies free access to the JLPI and Jersey Digital Mapping data in the last five years.

Article applied

Article 33 Commercial interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes a trade secret; or

(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Public Interest Test

Since the exemption engaged is qualified, not absolute, a public interest test has been conducted to assess whether, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in supplying the information is outweighed by the public interest in not doing so. It is judged that the contract values are commercially sensitive as they are the outcome of negotiations between parties and that the release of this data could affect the negotiation of future contracts and therefore the public interest in raising awareness of specific financial information is outweighed by the potential prejudice to the commercial interests of both the Government of Jersey and to third parties.