Government of Jersey

Health and Community Services interim staff (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 09 March 2020.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

Following on from a previous FOI request published at the following link:

HCS interim consultant staff (FOI)

I would like further information on the recruitment of these two temporary roles in Health and Community Services (HCS).

I understand the Risk and Governance Manager has since left HCS. Could you please provide the following:

The total cost of the completed contract, broken down into direct costs and ancillary costs (such as flights and accommodation).

Could you please confirm if the flights were domestic or international, and the cabin class used?

A copy of any post-engagement evaluation highlighting the outcomes of the engagement?

A copy of all governance strategies, policies or organisational structures developed by Ms Hall and confirmation of whether these remain in place?

I understand the Governance and Performance Analyst remains in HCS. Could you please provide:

A copy of the agreement to extend the contract beyond its initial term, and who approved this?

The expected end-date of the contract?

The total expected cost of the contract, broken down into direct and ancillary costs as per question 'A' above.

Finally, could you please provide:

The rationale for neither of the these posts apparently being included in States report R.149/2019 on the use of Consultants within the Government of Jersey.

Response

The total cost of the contract to 30 November 2019 is commercially sensitive information. Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied as its disclosure would, or would likely, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

The total cost to 30 November 2019 would fall into the Band of £35,000 to £49,999

The total cost of flights is £1,960 and all flights were domestic (London / Jersey) in economy class

The total cost of accommodation is £6,425.00

This information is exempt under Article 35 (Formulation and development of policies) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

HCS is unable to provide this information as the contract details commercially sensitive information. Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied as its disclosure would, or would likely, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information.

Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has also been applied to this question.

The contract will end on 31 March 2020

The total cost of the contract to 31 January 2020 is commercially sensitive information. Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied as its disclosure would, or would likely, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information.

The total cost to 31 January 2020 would fall into the Band of £50,000 to £74,999

The total cost of flights is £5,550.71 and all flights were domestic in economy class.

The total cost of accommodation is £21,700.52

The Proposition 59 (R.149/2019) criteria included costs booked in the system exceeding £20,000 in the period January to June 2019. Timing of the work may vary to when the cost is booked. Contracts started near the end of the period may not meet the cost criteria to be included in that report. The report for July to December 2019 will be released in the next few months and will include consultants / interims or contractors where costs meet the criteria in the second half of the year, even if they did not feature on the original report.

Articles applied

Article 25 Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.

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).

Prejudice / public interest test

Article 33 (b) allows an authority to refuse a request for information where its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information). Whilst we accept that the public may have an interest in the value of contracts between the Government of Jersey and interim staff, we believe 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 the relationship with any necessary consultants.

Article 35 Formulation and development of policies

Information is qualified exempt information if it relates to the formulation or development of any proposed policy by a public authority.

Prejudice / public interest test

Article 35 is a qualified exemption, which means that a public interest test is required to be undertaken by the Scheduled Public Authority (SPA). It is therefore necessary for the scheduled public authority to examine the circumstances of the case in order to determine if, on balance, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The following considerations were considered in relation to the requested post-engagement evaluation:

the Post-engagement evaluation is currently deemed to inform Policy development, as the role and results are under discussion

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure

disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public, providing confirmation that the necessary evaluations and review have taken place

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information

officials need to be able to discuss the impact of work undertaken and actions achieved and be able to discuss and test the information provided in a comprehensive way
release of the information at this stage might generate misinformed debate. This would affect the ability of officials to consider and develop departmental actions away from external pressures, and to advise Ministers appropriately

Taking into account the factors, the SPA have deemed that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information at this time.

The following considerations were considered in relation to the request for a copy of all governance strategies, policies or organisational structures developed by Ms Hall and confirmation of whether these remain in place:

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure

disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public, providing confirmation that the detailed works has taken place

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information

the implementation stages of new strategies and policies are still considered to form an active part of the policy process, during which opinions are sought and variations may be applied
in order to best develop policy, officials need to be able to provide full, frank advice about the possible impact of proposed policy, and be able to discuss and test those proposed policies in a comprehensive way
release of the information at this stage might generate misinformed debate. This would affect the ability of officials to complete the necessary ongoing changes to the department

Taking into account the various factors, the SPA have deemed that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information at this time.

It should be noted however that once a policy is formulated and published, the public interest in withholding information relating to its formulation is diminished.