Archaeological excavations (FOI)

Request

How much has been spent on Archaeological excavation and the recording of standing structures in the last 10 years (since 2009)?

Response

Expenditure on archaeological evaluation, and the recording of standing structures, originates as a requirement of the planning process or through the commissioning of archaeological work by the Government of Jersey (GoJ) and some of those bodies that are supported by GoJ.

The planning process, under the Revised 2011 Island Plan, requires any archaeological evaluation to be provided and paid for by the developer / applicant for works which may affect archaeological resources. This is a requirement of Policy HE5 of the Revised 2011 Island Plan: Preservation of archaeological resources:

Consultation Portal: Preservation of archaeological resources

The application of this policy is informed by supplementary planning guidance

Gov.je: Archaeology

We do not hold information on how much has been spent on archaeological evaluation and recording by developers / applicants in the private sector.

The GoJ has funded archaeological evaluations and recording in relation to the development of publicly owned land and buildings. However, to identify all relevant sites over a 10-year period will take longer than the 12.5 hour time limit and therefore Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 has again been applied.

In addition to the above, the GOJ provide an annual grant to Jersey Heritage. Details of the grants they have received, and their financial activities are already publicly available through the link below:

Jersey Heritage: Reports, Accounts and Reviews 

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.

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.