Fort Regent rental costs (FOI)

Request 

I would like you to share the income received for all rental contracts for fort regent in the years 2018 and 2019. This is to include ongoing tenants and also fees received for rental for events such as comedy and music gigs and performances.

Response

The following table provides the information requested in relation to the Fort Regent site.

The event income includes a wide range of events including ice rinks, comedy acts, a JETs netball national league match, and so on.

The specific operating costs to host the events have been removed, which includes the cost of the event officer team.

It should be noted that the event program was suspended in late March 2019 whilst essential work was completed on emergency lighting and so on.

The events program restarted later in the year, however, some of the concert/comedy style events were unviable due to capacity restrictions and costs associated with safety management.

Information regarding the income from individual rental and event contracts is exempt from release under Article 33(b) (Commercial interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

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

Article 33 is a qualified exemption, and a public interest test should be carried out by the Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) to determine whether the information should be released.

It is in the public interest to be made aware of any rental or event income received by the Government of Jersey in relation to Fort Regent site.  

However, the release of the individual income details could potentially disadvantage the tenants, event organisers and the Government of Jersey's ability to retain commercial advantage in any future rental and event negotiations regarding this site. 

Therefore, it is considered that the likely prejudice to the tenant, event organisers and the Government, should this information be released, outweighs the argument that the release is in the public interest.