RNLI meeting on 17 November 2017 (FOI)

Request

On the 17 November 2017, in an operation meticulously planned by members of the Jersey Government, Ports of Jersey, and the RNLI, the St Helier Lifeboat Crew were invited to a meeting at Government Offices in order that the RNLI Lifeboat could be removed from Jersey and the summary dismissal of the St Helier RNLI volunteers could begin.

Whilst Ports of Jersey (PoJ) still does not come under Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation the request is as follows:

Who booked the room at Cyril Le Marquand House in order that the meeting could take place, and which Government Employees / politicians were present at the meeting? (PoJ staff are government employees).

Publication of all email correspondence relating to this meeting - in particular emails from / to Deputy Steve Luce during the weeks before and after mentioning the RNLI - and emails to / from Government Officials and Ports of Jersey. Any correspondence relating to the meeting, including the booking request.

For clarification the main parties from the Government of Jersey and Ports of Jersey were:

• Senator Ian Gorst

• Deputy Steve Luce

• William Sadler - Harbourmaster

• Doug Bannister - Ports of Jersey

• Darren Scott - Director Economic Development

The aim is to identify parties involved in the standing down of the St Helier Lifeboat Crew and removal of volunteers. I am trying to piece together the unfortunate events leading up to their removal, and the subsequent responses of those involved.

Response

Please note:

• Ports of Jersey staff are not Government of Jersey employees and do not fall under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

• this response is based on the clarification provided by the requester and has focused on the 17 November 2017 meeting and any related correspondence held.

• the RNLI requested use of a meeting room at a neutral venue in which they could meet the St Helier crew on Friday 17 November 2017.

• the meeting room was booked by an Administrator.

• it has not been possible to retrieve a copy of the meeting request as the system used for retrieving emails / meeting requests is limited to two years on a rolling basis.

Email searches were performed using the auditable email archive service of the Government of Jersey. Emails are retained for a rolling two-year period. Email searches were performed on the accounts of the following.

• Senator Ian Gorst

• Deputy Steve Luce

• Darren.Scott

The keywords utilised within the searches were ‘RNLI’, ‘Lifeboat’, ‘Ports of Jersey’ and ‘17 November’.

All emails retrieved have been reviewed for their relevance to the meeting in question, which was arranged on behalf of the RNLI and former crew.

Relevant email correspondence is attached below:

Relevant extracted emails

Limited personal data has been redacted under Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Article 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 2018.

(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 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.