Freedom of Information costs (FOI)

​Request

I would like to know:

A

The name of the person making each freedom of information request in 2016.

B

The total cost of providing freedom of information information in 2016.

Response

A

The information requested is absolutely exempt under Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

B

The 2016 budget for the Central Freedom of Information was £100,000. The budget for the unit is the same for 2017. This budget includes the staffing of the central unit.

In addition to the central function each department has a number of staff who, as part of their duties, are responsible for departmental collation of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests prior to passing it back to the Central Freedom of Information Unit which then checks the response for compliance with the law and accuracy.

The time allocation for the preparation of responses is not recorded separately from the other functions performed by the individuals involved in departments although there is clearly a cost involved. Cost analysis on every request is not currently conducted.

The law allows that requests which would take more than 12.5 hours to collate may be refused. However, given the nature of many requests, the hours required by staff to collate a response are considerable. This involves both senior staff and officers who undertake the research work.

Exemptions applied

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.