PFAS correspondence between ministers (FOI)PFAS correspondence between ministers (FOI)
Produced by the Freedom of Information officeAuthored by Government of Jersey and published on
03 February 2025.Prepared internally, no external costs.
Request 679556744
Can I have a copy of all correspondence between Constable Andy Jehan, Deputy Steve Luce, Deputy Tom Binet, chief officers at both Environment at Health, and their predecessors (pre-2024), Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham - both internal and external - and representatives of 3M.
Can I also have a copy of all corresspondence from the above named people that mentions: '3M' and 'PFAS' since 2022.
Response
It is estimated that to identify and extract the data requested would exceed the 12.5 timescale prescribed in the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.
Article applied
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 an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.
nternal Review Request
Hello I would like to appeal this.
I would also like to know how many emails we are talking about here?
Internal Review response
The Internal Review Panel was asked to review the response provide and confirm the following:
Does the FOI request relate to a body to which the Law applies, or information held by a body covered by the Law? If the answer is no, all the other questions are not applicable.
Further questions:
iv. Was the right information searched for and reviewed?
v. Was the information supplied appropriately
vi. Was information appropriately withheld in accordance with the articles applied and were the public interest test/ prejudice test properly applied?
The Internal Review Panel requested that some searches be completed and the FOI log to be filled in to evidence the quantity of data that would require review to support Article 16.
Searches were to be carried out on the email accounts of Deputy Jehan, Deputy Steve Luce, Deputy Tom Binet, Andrew Scate, Chris Bown and Caroline Landon for the period 1.1.22 – 31.12.2024. The search terms used were ‘PFAS’ and ‘3M’.
The suggested searches were conducted by the department and resulted in a total of 13,948 pages comprising of 5,409 emails.
Due to the resulting number of emails from these limited searches, the conclusion of the review panel is that to retrieve and extract the requested information would take in excess of the 12.5 hours prescribed in the Freedom of Information regulations, therefore the application of Article 16 was appropriate, and the original response should be upheld.
Article applied
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 an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.
Internal Review Request
Hello I would like to appeal this.
I would also like to know how many emails we are talking about here?
Internal Review response
The Internal Review Panel was asked to review the response provide and confirm the following:
Does the FOI request relate to a body to which the Law applies, or information held by a body covered by the Law? If the answer is no, all the other questions are not applicable.
Further questions:
iv. Was the right information searched for and reviewed?
v. Was the information supplied appropriately
vi. Was information appropriately withheld in accordance with the articles applied and were the public interest test/ prejudice test properly applied?
The Internal Review Panel requested that some searches be completed and the FOI log to be filled in to evidence the quantity of data that would require review to support Article 16.
Searches were to be carried out on the email accounts of Deputy Jehan, Deputy Steve Luce, Deputy Tom Binet, Andrew Scate, Chris Bown and Caroline Landon for the period 1.1.22 – 31.12.2024. The search terms used were ‘PFAS’ and ‘3M’.
The suggested searches were conducted by the department and resulted in a total of 13,948 pages comprising of 5,409 emails.
Due to the resulting number of emails from these limited searches, the conclusion of the review panel is that to retrieve and extract the requested information would take in excess of the 12.5 hours prescribed in the Freedom of Information regulations, therefore the application of Article 16 was appropriate, and the original response should be upheld.
Article applied
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 an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.
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