Travel and hotel expenses (FOI)

​Request

A

Can I please have a breakdown of all States members and civil servants travel costs, broken down by individual and also broken down to individual flights, expenses and hotel costs per trip. Can I please have this going back to the beginning of 2015 to date?

B

Could you also please tell me exactly what happens to all the Avios points earned on these bookings?

C

Are they allocated to the individual for their personal use or are they pooled and used for States business?

Response

A

On 10 June 2016, the States of Jersey published a review of Travel Policy and Recommendations for Improvement.

Appendix 2 of the review contains a breakdown of flights, expenses and accommodation booked for civil servants and States members during 2014 and 2015.

Review of travel policy and recommend​ations for improvement

Information has also been provided to the Public Accounts Committee.

The review recommends that details of all flights and hotel bookings over £500 are published on a six monthly basis. The first of these biannual reports will be prepared in December 2016 for publication in early 2017. This report will contain the figures requested for 2016.

States members' travel did not form part of the terms of reference of the policy review, however, the data contained in Appendix 2 includes States members. 

In addition, the Privileges and Procedures Committee will be invited to consider whether these rules should be applied in relation to travel by States members.

The flight costs incurred by ministers and assistant ministers are already published on an annual basis. The most recent available figures form part of Appendix 3.

The Council of Ministers will also be invited to consider whether it wishes to amend their Ministerial Code of Conduct to reflect the changes being made as a result of this review.

B and C

Information about the past and now recommended policy in relation to loyalty points accrued is outlined in the review referred to in answer to question A.

Exemptions applied:

Article 23: Information accessible to applicant by other means:

(1)    Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2)     A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.

Article 25: Personal information

(1)     Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2)     Information is absolutely exempt information if:

(a)     it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b)     its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.