Back to Work programme claimants (FOI)

​Request

On 28 September 2012, the Health, Social Security and Housing Scrutiny Panel held a Quarterly Public Hearing with the Minister for Social Security. The transcript of this hearing has still not been published on the scrutiny.gov.je website more than four years later, although the podcast has.

During that hearing (starting at 18 minutes 27 seconds on the podcast), Deputy K.L. Moore, Chairman, referred to the Minister's proposals to tighten up the Income Support system and she asked him to explain the sanctions he was proposing to introduce for claimants failing to look for jobs.

The Minister, Senator Francis Le Gresley, replied to Deputy Moore as follows:

"I have to stress that at the moment these are proposals that we are discussing within the Department and also with the Oversight Group of Ministers who are involved with the Back to Work programme. Therefore today I can't give you the detail that you might wish. I can certainly let you have that privately but I can't discuss it openly because it has to be approved, effectively, by the Council of Ministers. We are preparing a paper for the Council of Ministers for next week with our proposals on sanctions and subject to Council of Ministers agreeing we will then be preparing a change in the Regulations to the Income Support Law and Provisions, but essentially it will speed up the process by which somebody receives a sanction for noncompliance with job seeking activities". 

He also said:

"The Council of Ministers will be looking at this next week, the Ministers who sit on the Back to Work programme have approved the changes that we are proposing. Subject to Council of Ministers agreeing, we will lodge within the next six to eight weeks our proposals."

With respect to the above, please supply the following:

A

A transcript of the Quarterly Hearing with the Minister for Social Security held on 28 September 2012;

B

The paper referred to by Senator Le Gresley in the extract above, which he said was being prepared for the Council of Ministers the following week;

C

Any such paper that had already been presented to the Ministerial Oversight Group prior to 28 September 2012, which Senator Le Gresley stated in the extract above that they had approved;

D

Any emails or other correspondence that were exchanged in the days, weeks or months following the Quarterly Hearing on 28 September 2012 between, on the one hand, Senator Le Gresley, Assistant Minister Deputy S.J. Pinel, the Chief Officer, Policy and Strategy Director or Operations Director of Social Security or their secretaries and, on the other hand, any of the three Scrutiny Panel members at that time (Deputies Moore, Hilton and Reid) or any Scrutiny Officer, or any member of the Council of the Ministers at that time, or any other Member of the States at that time, where the subject of the correspondence was Senator Le Gresley's proposals to tighten sanctions on noncompliant jobseekers.

Response 

A

A transcript of the Quarterly Scrutiny hearing held on 28 September 2012 can be found at the following link:

Quarterly Scrutiny hearing held on 28 September 2012

The following link provides a transcript of a Scrutiny Medium Term Financial Plan Review Hearing held on 14 September 2012 which includes a reference to the subject of this request:

Scrutiny Medium Term Financial Plan Review held on 14 September 2012

B

The agendas for the Council of Ministers meetings for the months of October to December 2012 have been reviewed. There is no record of the paper referred to in the request being considered by the Council of Ministers. The requested information is therefore not held. 

C

The paper referred to in the request was presented to a meeting of the Back to Work Ministerial Task Force held on 24 September 2012. 

A copy of this report, the meeting agenda and the email of 22 September 2012 distributing both of these in advance of that meeting are provided with this response. Personal data relating to a States Employment Board employee has been redacted.

Download Distribution email 20170120 (size 210kb)

Download 24 Sept 2012 Back Work Ministerial Task Force agenda 20170120 (size 24.4kb)

Download Sanctions and Voluntarily Leaving Work Proposals 20170120 (size 384kb)

D

The States has an automated email archive system that records all email sent and received to gov.je accounts. This email archive is retained to restore data if it becomes corrupted or is lost. 

After taking into account the information requirements stipulated in the Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002, Data Protection (Jersey) 2005 Law and the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011, the Corporate Management Board decided that these archived emails should be retained for two years. This policy was implemented on 17th October 2014. There is therefore, no archive of emails for the requested date range in 2012.

This process does not delete emails from all computers and servers. Each department has its own records retention policy, and the automatic deletion of emails from the backup server does not affect emails saved in user files or on official records management systems.

Departments are required to handle information in documents, applications and emails in accordance with their retention schedules and legal obligations. Retention schedules are determined by the business needs of departments and are reviewed and approved by Chief Officers and Jersey Archive.

The email accounts of former Senator and Minister for Social Security F Le Gresley and the current Minister and former Assistant Minister for Social Security Deputy S Pinel and, where applicable, their secretary have been reviewed. 

The Social Security Department’s record management system and user files have been reviewed for emails and other correspondence from or to the then Chief Officer, the then Operations Director and the Policy and Strategy Director and, where applicable, their secretary that are relevant to the subject and time period of this request.

This has identified the attached three documents that fall within this request. Personal data relating to some States Employment Board employees has been redacted.

Download 24 Sept 2012 SSD and Scrutiny e-mail 20170120 (size 316kb)

Download 26 Sept 2012 SSD and Scrutiny e-mail 20170120 (size 275kb)

Download 10 Oct 2012 SSD and Scrutiny e-mail 20170120 (size 276kb)

No other Members of the States email accounts have been checked as it is estimated that this would take more than 12.5 hours and so is refused under Article 16(1) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Exemption(s) applied

Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 

Article 16(1) A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

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.

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.