Arts Consultancy Healthcare Facilities Project costs (FOI)

Request

Please kindly confirm how much has been spent on arts consultancy as part of the New Healthcare Facilities Project from its inception to date.

This should be broken down by provider, project and date i.e. T Projects - Therapeutic Arts Strategy, August 2024.

If a specific project has been commissioned but not yet realised, please share the provider and the project, and expected date the project will be realised.

Response

​Therapeutic art forms part of the design for the New Healthcare Facilities. The Arts Consultants have been engaged as part of the wider appointment through the project architects. This includes T Projects.

There are no future commissions at this time, although it is anticipated that therapeutic art will continue to be progressed as part of any RIBA 04 Technical Design Scope.

The value of individual engagements or contracts is commercially sensitive, and as such, Health and Community Services (HCS) considers that disclosure of such detail would likely prejudice the commercial interests of the department, or others. Therefore, Article 33(b) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

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 as such, HCS has conducted a prejudice test as required by law. When responding to requests of this nature, HCS has to balance the public interest with the impact that disclosing this information would, or would be likely to, have upon the organisation and / or third parties. Whilst it may be in the public interest to understand the costs of contracting services, protecting the commercial interests of HCS is an essential component in controlling public finances, which in itself is in the public interest.

It has been concluded that disclosing details of the contractual service arrangements is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of HCS and / or the provider. When considering the application of this exemption, HCS has determined that whilst it is in the public interest to disclose information, this is outweighed by the necessity to limit any impact on the commercial interests of HCS and third parties in future contract negotiations, and as such, Article 33 has been applied.