Tourism advertising and improvements to public spaces (FOI)

Request

A

Please advise how much is spent annually by the Government of Jersey on Jersey Tourism advertising.

B

Please give details of the proposed strategy, projects and funding that will be spent on improving Jersey's public spaces for children’s activities such as, new and improved parks, swimming pool upgrades for toddlers, free or supplemented activities provided by the Government of Jersey as part of its commitment to improving services for young families.

Response

A

The Government of Jersey pay an annual grant to Visit Jersey. It is for Visit Jersey to determine how they go on to spend that grant. Any further information on how that is broken down is therefore not held by the Government of Jersey. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies. 

For reference, please see links to the Visit Jersey and States of Jersey Annual reports for 2022 below: 

Visit Jersey 2022-Annual-Report-and-Financial-Statements.pdf (jersey.com)

States of Jersey Group 2022 Annual Report and Accounts (gov.je)

B

The Operations and Transport section of Infrastructure and Environment has submitted business cases to the Proposed Government Plan for 2024 to 2027 to request funding for improvements for parks and gardens.  The Proposed Government Plan can be accessed using the link below.

The Parks and Gardens project is referenced on page 71 however, the business case summaries have not been included in the published document.

Government Plan 2024 to 2027 (gov.je)

Operations and Transport are preparing plans for the extension of Coronation Park into the adjacent field. 

The Government Plan also identifies proposed capital funding for Parks and Gardens which would include the following:

• Updates/replacements of playground equipment
• CCTV security measures
• General enhancement to the parks.

The Sports team within Infrastructure and Environment is progressing the following projects:

• Development of plans to improve skating locations in St Helier
• Continue to invest in play equipment at various sports locations
  
• Ongoing development of Play Strategy

A Play Policy is being developed by the Children, Young People, Education and Skills Department (CYPES) and will underpin a future Play Strategy for our island. 

Information in the meantime can be found on the Best Start Partnership link below:

Best Start Partnership (beststart.je)

Article 35 (Formulation and Development of Policies) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to the release of further information regarding proposed strategies, projects and funding, etc., since these projects have not yet been finalised.

Release of the information at this stage would likely generate misinformed debate. This could affect the ability of officials to consider and develop policy away from external pressures, and to advise Ministers appropriately. 

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

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 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.

Following assessment, the Government of Jersey has concluded that, on balance, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. 

It should also be noted that once a policy is formulated and published, the public interest in withholding information relating to its formulation is diminished, however, the use of the exemption can be supported if it preserves sufficient freedom during the policy formulation phase to explore options without that process being hampered by some expectation of future publication.