Jersey Opera House maintenance reports (FOI)

Request

A

Please provide a copy of the report / survey into the structural / maintenance needs of the Opera House commissioned by Government in 2020 as referred to in the following JEP article:

Opera House will remain closed without funding

B

Please also kindly confirm:

• the date the report was commissioned and completed, and by whom

• who carried out the survey work and at what cost

Response

A

The Government of Jersey did not commission reports into the structural / maintenance of the Jersey Opera House in 2020. The Government of Jersey, through Jersey Property Holdings commissioned three surveys in 2019: Drains, Building, and Mechanical and Engineering. A further report was commissioned to undertake a Fire Risk Assessment. All the reports were completed in 2019.

Subsequently, the Jersey Opera House has been successful in securing funding from the Fiscal Stimulus Fund in 2021 to undertake the works highlighted in the reports. These documents will form part of the tendering document to secure a main contractor to undertake the necessary works. As such, these documents will remain confidential, in order that no one contractor has a commercial advantage over another, in terms of what is contained within. The Channel Islands Tender Portal, which also sends automatic notifications to organizations that have registered interest in specific industry areas, is expected to cover this specific tender with copies of the reports before the end of July 2021. Article 33(b) (Commercial interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied

B

Currie and Brown (Consultants) Limited (Building Survey) - £6,432.50. Commissioned May 2019 and completed June 2019.

Ennis Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Consultants (Mechanical and Electrical Survey) - £4,880.00 Commissioned May 2019 and completed June 2019.

Rothwells Consulting Engineers (Structural Survey) - £2,150.00. Commissioned May 2019 and completed June 2019.

10Ability Fire Engineering Ltd (Fire Risk Assessment) - £3,733.00. Commissioned and completed August 2019.

Article applied

Article 33 Commercial interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(b) its disclosure 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. Given the imminent tenders, when public access will be available, it was decided, at this time, the public interest is outweighed by the potential prejudice to the commercial interests of both the Government of Jersey and to third parties and therefore it was decided not to release the information.