Government of Jersey alcohol purchases (FOI)

Request

I would like to know how much the Government of Jersey spent on alcoholic drinks in the last audited financial year. To include social, charitable and networking events as well as charges made to states credit cards for alcoholic drinks for both States employees and their guests.

Response

The table below shows the cost of alcohol paid by the Government of Jersey in 2018 from suppliers identified in the system as alcoholic drink suppliers. Fruit juice and water purchases may also be included in a limited number of cases, as part of the overall order placed.

This will not show purchases of alcohol on a purchase card or through a supplier such as a hotel. All purchase card purchases are reviewed, and spending would need to follow policies in place. The Government of Jersey Financial Directions for travel and accommodation state that “Alcohol is not permitted when claiming subsistence unless approval has been received from the budget holder or accounting officer (or delegate). Approval should be sought at preauthorisation stage wherever possible.”

To identify any additional costs would exceed the time allowed under the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014.

In addition;

• Children, Young People, Education & Skills also purchased £11,028 of alcohol to sell in their restaurant at Highlands. There is no overall cost to the Government of Jersey

• Justice & Home Affairs incurred a cost of alcohol of £656 for an event in 2018 which was reimbursed in 2019, so has not been included

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.