Government employee residence and remote working arrangements. (FOI)

Request

A

Please advise how many Government of Jersey permanent employees and / or employees on fixed term contracts are resident in Jersey for tax purposes. If possible, I would like the numbers by department but, if this will take too long or will provide sufficient personal information for the individuals to be identified, just the total number will suffice.

B

I would also like an update to Senator K L Moore's written question to the Chief Minister tabled on 12 May 2020, namely: how many people (both on full-time contracts or engaged as consultants) are working remotely for the Government of Jersey from a home based outside of Jersey. I would also like to know the numbers of these employees by department if possible.

Response

A

Anyone living in Jersey employed by the Government of Jersey would be required to provide tax reference details upon employment. The Government of Jersey only holds this information for the purpose of complying with legal requirements and we cannot comment on individual tax statuses.

Article 29 of the Freedom of Information Law (2011) prevents the disclosure of information that is prohibited by any enactment. Article 8 of the Revenue Administration Law (2019) prohibits the disclosure of any information obtained under a Revenue Law, for any purpose other than that for which it was obtained.

The number of people employed by the Government of Jersey can be found on page 207 of the Annual Report and Accounts 2020.

Government of Jersey Annual Report and Accounts 2020

B

Information relating to any informal working arrangements and working locations is not available centrally and would require manual enquiries to confirm with all staff their current working arrangements and location. Therefore, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied. A Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) is not required to manipulate and create new data sets, but to provide the requester with information the SPA holds which has been specifically requested.

Articles applied

Article 3 - Meaning of "information held by a public authority"

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 29 - Other prohibitions or restrictions

Information is absolutely exempt information if the disclosure of the information by the scheduled public authority holding it –

(a) is prohibited by or under an enactment;

(b) is incompatible with a European Union or an international obligation that applies to Jersey; or

(c) would constitute or be punishable as a contempt of court.