Road safety improvement measures (FOI)

Request

It was announced by Government on 22 February 2023 that some of the revenue gained from increased parking prices (effective 1 March 2023) in Government owned public car parks "...will be used to fund road safety improvement measures". Exactly what measures are these? 

Parking prices to increase from March (gov.je)

Response

The road safety improvement measures that will be funded by the increased parking revenue are still being determined.

Therefore, Article 35 (Formulation and development of policies) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Article 35 is a qualified exemption; therefore, a public interest test has been applied and is shown at the end of this response.

Article applied

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.

Public Interest Test

In applying this article, the following considerations were taken into account.

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure 

• Disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public, providing confirmation that the necessary discussions have taken place.
• Disclosure to the public fulfils an educative role about the early stages in policy development and illustrates how the department engages with parties for this purpose.  

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information

• In order to best develop policy and provide advice to Ministers, officials need a safe space in which free and frank discussion can take place – discussion of how documentation is presented and provided is considered as integral to policy development as iterations of documents are demonstrative of the policy development process.
• The need for this safe space is considered at its greatest during the live stages of a policy.
• Release of the information at this stage might generate misinformed debate. This would affect the ability of officials to consider and develop policy away from external pressures, and to advise Ministers appropriately.
• Premature disclosure of this information may limit the willingness of parties to provide their honest views and feedback. This would hamper and harm the policy–making process not only in relation to this subject area but in respect of future policy development across wider departmental business.