Travel costs for consultants and advisors (FOI)

​​​Request

A

What has the States spent on travel costs for consultants and advisors who do not appear in the records for total spending on travel within the civil service, broken down by department for the years 2014, 2015 and to date in 2016?

B

What was the nature of such travel, where from and in what class?

C

What is the policy for paying for such travel?

Response

The request has been split into each part of the request for ease of response.

A

The nature and engagement of consultants and advisors varies considerably between departments.

As an example one department’s preferred consultancy engagement may have a fixed price for the delivery of a report, eg they agree to pay Consultancy Firm X a fixed sum including expenses to advice on a matter. It is then up to the consultants to make flight, accommodation and subsistence arrangements but the department will only pay the agreed sum on the delivery of the report. The department would be unaware of the cost or detail of travel arrangements. 

Consultants may also be engaged at a cost excluding the cost of flights and accommodation and therefore the department will be responsible for meeting this expense. When the department meets the cost, bookings will be made in line with financial directions.

The following departments are unable to provide detail within the 12.5 hours prescribed by the legislation as it would be necessary to examine every contract where a consultant has been employed, and all travel detail to break down the cost and class of flights. This element of the request is therefore being refused under Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. See detail below. 

• Chief Minister’s Department

• Department for Infrastructure

• Department of the Environment

• Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture

• Health and Social Services

• Treasury and Resources

Detail as requested is provided for the following departments.

Community and Constitutional Affairs

In addition to the above, the States of Jersey Police employ a consultant for which travel and accommodation is incorporated within the fee.

Education

Non-Ministerial Departments

No consultants or advisors have been employed by the Judicial Greffe or the Viscount’s Department over the specified period. 

Social Security

In most cases for Social Security consultancy fees include travel expenses, but in the period the department did book travel on one occasion ​

 States Greffe

B

The detail which is available has been provided in the answer to question A.

C

The policy for such travel in relation to consultants and advisors is included in Financial Direction No 5.6 [u] Management of Consultants. The relevant extract is:

2.1.8 Allowable expenditure on subsistence, travel and accommodation must be reasonable, and consideration must be given as to whether expenditure on luxury restaurants/hotels and first class travel is acceptable. Where appropriate, the use of approved corporate contracts is actively encouraged when booking travel and accommodation on behalf of consultants (see Financial Direction 5.7 Travel and Accommodation Expenditure). The Procurement Team should be contacted where users require further information.

This document, and all financial directions, are currently in the process of review and a new set will be issued in 2016. This review is being carried out for the reasons outlined below.

Justification for refusal of information:

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (JERSEY) LAW 2011

PART 2

ACCESS TO INFORMATION HELD BY A SCHEDULED PUBLIC AUTHORITY

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.4

(2)  Despite paragraph (1), a scheduled public authority may still supply the information requested on payment to it of a fee determined by the authority in the manner prescribed by Regulations for the purposes of this Article. 

(3) Regulations may provide that, in such circumstances as the Regulations prescribe, if two or more requests for information are made to a scheduled public authority: 

            (a) by one person; or 

            (b) by different persons who appear to the scheduled public authority to be acting in             concert or in pursuance of a campaign, 

            the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the 
            estimated total cost of complying with all of them.