Bottled water, alcohol and biscuits expenditure by the States of Jersey (FOI)Bottled water, alcohol and biscuits expenditure by the States of Jersey (FOI)
Produced by the Freedom of Information officeAuthored by States of Jersey and published on
30 January 2015.Prepared internally, no external costs.
Request
Under the Freedom of Information Law, I would like to know how much money the States has spent (broken down into the last 3 years) on the following:
- Bottled water
- Alcohol
- Biscuits & cakes
Response
We have provided information in relation to States expenditure on biscuits and bottled water. Expenditure on alcohol is minimal and is only in relation to hospitality. It would not be possible to provide details of this within the cost and time limits set by the FOI Law and Regulations.
The information provided will not include biscuits which have been purchased from outside of our main suppliers, through purchase cards or petty cash. There are 20 suppliers included in the information which we have provided.
As we discussed, the level of detail you requested is not recorded in our financial systems. We have an estimated 46,500 invoices which we would have to review in order to extract the information, and you can appreciate this would be beyond the 12.5 hours limit per department.
Bottled water is only purchased where it is not possible to use water filter systems connected to the mains water supply. Some departments use bottled water coolers. This information is not a complete picture of what the States of Jersey spend on bottled water. There may be purchases of water by way of purchase cards or petty cash or within orders for other goods which have not specified each item.
Certain departments, such as Home Affairs and Health and Social services purchase these items for clients but also for resale and it would be difficult to assess the value which had been resold as the breakdown of income / expenditure is not that specific. The time that it would take each department to review their expenditure for these items would go beyond the 12.5 hour limit.
In 2014, the States of Jersey introduced a new purchasing system known as Supply Jersey. It is anticipated that all States departments will have transferred to the new system by the end of 2015. This new system will provide the ability to report more specifically on purchases.
| Water | £20,143.44 | £19,641.70 | £24,266.91 |
| Cups | £3,197.12 | £3,068.06 | £3,712.22 |
| Water dispensers (includes: filter changes, sterilising charges, rentals, new water coolers- purchased) | £36,554.31 | £44,945.37 | £34,330.06 |
| Total water | £59,894.87 | £67,655.13 | £62,309.19 |
| Biscuits | £21,780.56 | £22,517.79 | £25,607.06 |
| Alcohol | | It is not possible to provide this information as it would take in excess of 12.5 hours to collect (Article 16(1)). | |
Exemption
You will see that an exemption has been applied to the alcohol element of the request. This information is exempt under Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011, as it is estimated that it will take in excess of 12.5 hours to collect the information.
Article 16: A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive
(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed any fee of an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations for the purposes of Article 15.
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