Furniture and decoration costs (FOI)

Request

Can you please provide a breakdown on how much each States department has spent on furniture, decorations and painting in each of the last five years?

Response

The table below shows the breakdown, where available, on how much each States of Jersey department spent on furniture, decorations and painting in the last five years.

When reviewing the table the following needs to be taking into consideration:

The Health and Social Services Department (HSS) includes furniture purchased across the range of desks and chairs for offices but also the refurbishment of the General Hospital’s wards and accommodation; it is not possible to split these costs to show just offices within the 12.5 hours available according to the legislation. Painting costs cannot be broken down into offices only.

The Chief Minister’s Department (CMD), Treasury and Resources (T&R) and non-ministerial departments record painting and decorating as a single item.

The Education Department, previously Education, Sport and Culture (ESC), has provided all details not just for itself. Costs provided are for all buildings in ESC including offices, schools, sports centres etc. It is not possible to isolate office costs only within the time frame (12.5 hour limit).

The Education Department is unable to detail the painting costs as they are coded to the minor works’ budget which includes carpeting, carpentry, electrical repairs and a number of other items related to general maintenance and repairs. To detail solely painting costs would involve going through 18,000 records which would be beyond the 12.5 hours available.

The Social Security Department is unable to detail the painting costs as they are coded within building repairs, maintenance and improvements. To investigate and classify individual invoices to detail solely painting costs would take more than the 12.5 hours available. As painting is estimated to be a very small part of this expenditure, no figures have been included.

Expenditure on office furniture would be included within the wider expenditure category of furniture and fixings, which would also include other types of furniture and fixing. It is not possible to investigate and classify individual invoices within the 12.5 hours available, but the overall expenditure figure has been shown. The costs relate to both the tax funded department and the Social Security funds.

It is not possible for some departments to break down each given area within the time limit of 12.5 hours. For this level of detail it would be necessary to review all invoices relevant to that expenditure.

Download expenditure breakdown for furniture, decorations and painting (size 352kb)