Communications Directorate staffing (FOI)

Request

A

How many people now work in the communications department for the GOJ and, specifically, in HCS?

B
How does this and related costs compare with previous years?

C
Are there updates to this Freedom of Information request : Communication Directorate (FOI)?

The associated reports appear to be inaccessible?

Many thanks and apologies if the information is already in the public domain and I have been unable to retrieve it.

Response

A

There are 32 people working in the Communications Directorate for the Government of Jersey, of which three support Health and Community Services (HCS).

B
Since the establishment of the Directorate, there have been two members of staff working on communications in HCS – one Head of Communication and one Assistant Communication Officer (working on internal and operational bulletins).

In January 2022, an extra member of staff was moved from the central Press Office to support the Jersey Care Model. This post was created in response to a recommendation of the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel.

Please note that in 2020 there was consolidation of communication officers from departments into the Directorate and an increase in headcount in the internal communications team (due to COVID-19 pressures) and in the marketing team (to save money by providing services in house that would have otherwise been spent with external agencies).

C

The Communications Directorate sits within the Office of the Chief Executive. The budget allocation for this department is listed annually in the States of Jersey Annual Report and Accounts.

The details of how much money was spent in Communications Department in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 is given in response (B) above.

The Freedom of Information response referenced in the request, totals the Directorate's spend from July – November 2018 at £492,577. This report was prepared and released on 10 December 2018. By the end of 2018, the total spend from July to December was £520,000. Final reconciliations across the Government found that departments spent a further £200,000~ on communications in the months leading up to the formation of the Directorate and so this money was attributed to the Directorate in the end of year accounts.

The details of the annual earnings of the Director of Communications are exempt under Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. However, the current Director of Communications was appointed on 29th November 2019, in post from 2 March 2020 and is paid in a salary range of between £93,000 and £140,000.

Article 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.