Government spending on pens and paper (FOI)

Request

How much do government departments spend on pens and paper

Response

The generic term for pens encompasses a wide range of products from general stationery items to highly specialist equipment / tools eg hospital skin marker pens. The transactional information we hold could encompass various descriptions of pen purchases across many differing suppliers and therefore would require analysis of individual purchase orders lines to obtain the specific details. Such analysis would exceed the 12.5 hour permitted timeframe for responding to Freedom of Information request and Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Information relating to the number of reams of paper purchased by the Government is available on page 120 of the States of Jersey Annual Report, available at the following link:

Annual Report and Accounts 2018

In respect of the cost of paper, the responding department can confirm that it holds this information. However, the cost price of a ream is commercially sensitive to the Government and its suppliers. The information is therefore exempt under Article 33 (Commercial interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Articles 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.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

Article 33 Commercial interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes a trade secret; or

(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Prejudice / public interest test

Article 33 (b) allows an authority to refuse a request for information where its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information). Whilst we accept that the public may have an interest in Government spending, we believe the contract values are commercially sensitive as they are the outcome of negotiations between parties and that the release of this data could prejudice the Government’s ability to obtain paper at the best price.