Children’s Advisory Panel (FOI)

Original Request

In accordance with Article 26(3) of the Commissioner for Children and Young People Law 2019, please confirm where in the public domain information has been published, and is permanently available, regarding:

A

The criteria and process for making appointments to the Advisory Panel.

B

The terms and conditions applying in respect of an appointment.

C

The Panel's procedures. If such information is not already publicly accessible, please ensure it is published and made permanently available as a result of this request.

Please also publish the minutes of all meetings of the Advisory Panel that have taken place to date.

Original Response

A

Terms of Reference for the Adult Advisory Panel are published and permanently available on the Children's Commissioner for Jersey Web site at the following link:

Children's Commissioner for Jersey

This information is therefore exempt as it is already in the public domain. Article 23 (Information accessible to applicant by other means) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

B and C

Minutes of meetings - The terms of reference do not require minutes of meetings to be recorded, only that brief notes of the discussion will be recorded.

The request is to publish the minutes. There is no requirement to publish any minutes in the Commissioner for Children and Young People (Jersey) Law 2019.

Article applied

Article 23: Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for the information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information

Internal review request

I wish for a review to be conducted of the way in which this Public Authority has handled my FOI request.

Article 26(3) of the Commissioner for Children and Young People Law 2019 mandates that the Children's Commissioner must publish the following:

(a) the criteria and process for appointment to the Audit and Risk Advisory Panel.

(b) the terms and conditions applying in respect of an appointment; and

(c) the Audit and Risk Advisory Panel’s procedures.

A

In response to my FOI, the Commissioner has stated that the, "Terms of Reference for the Adult Advisory Panel are published on www.childcomjersey.org.je and is therefore in the public domain and permanently available". However, the 'Terms of Reference' are not published on the Children's Commissioners website; no link to the 'Terms of Reference' have been provided and it is not clear how this information can be accessed. I have reviewed the website thoroughly and I cannot find this information.

In any event, in accordance with the Law, I have requested where in the public domain information has been published, and is permanently available in relation to, (i) the criteria and process for appointment to the Audit and Risk Advisory Panel, (ii) the terms and conditions applying in respect of an appointment, and (iii) the Audit and Risk Advisory Panel's procedures (Article 26(3) as listed above). This is different to the, "terms of reference for the Adult Advisory Panel". If it is not different, it has not been clearly explained why this is the same as Article 26(3)(a)-(c) and copies have not been provided and / or I have not been appropriately directed to where this information is available on the website.

B

In response to my request for minutes of all meetings of the Advisory Panel to be published, the Public Authority has stated that, "There is no requirement to publish any minutes in the Commissioner for Children and Young People (Jersey) Law 2019". This same Law requires Article 26(3)(a)-(c) to be published so it is not clear why the Public Authority is placing reliance upon what it is obliged to publish under the Law in circumstances where it has not published Article 26(3)(a)-(c), or at the very least it has not adequately signposted me to this information. Put another way, if the Public Authority is placing reliance upon the Law as a reason for not publishing minutes of the meetings of the Advisory Panel, then it follows that the Public Authority must act in accordance with the Law and publish the information as mandated by Article 26(3)(a)-(c).

The Public Authority has stated that, " Minutes of meetings - The terms of reference do not require minutes of meetings to be recorded, only that brief notes of the discussion will be recorded". In circumstances where the Children's Commissioner is looking to put children first, it is not clear why she will not appropriately record the meetings of the Audit and Risk Advisory Panel and upload these minutes into the public domain. In any event, I would like to please request that the, "brief notes of the discussions" are provided to me and / or uploaded to the Children's Commissioner's website. Alternatively, I would like an explanation of why the Public Authority is unwilling to provide this information and / or make it accessible to the public. I do not consider a bare denial to be satisfactory in these circumstances.

Addendum: In my request for a review to be conducted I have, in part, mistaken the 'Audit and Risk Advisory Panel' for the 'Adult Advisory Panel'.

Please note my FOI was in relation to the Adult Advisory Panel; please ignore any reference to the Audit and Risk Advisory Panel and treat it as being a reference to the Adult Advisory Panel.

Internal review response

This review has been completed by two senior staff members of the Government of Jersey, independent of the original decision making process.

The original response has been reviewed and assessed at each point.

A

The criteria and process for making appointments to the Advisory Panel; the terms and conditions applying in respect of an appointment; and the Panel’s procedures are all contained in the terms of reference for the Adult Advisory Panel which are published on www.childcomjersey.org.je. It was acknowledged that it would have been of further assistance if a link to the specific page on the website had been provided.

The Terms of Reference can be found in the following link:

Advisory panels' terms of reference

B

The Advisory Panel terms of reference require the brief notes of the discussion will be recorded. There is no requirement in the Commissioner for Children and Young People (Jersey) Law 2019 to publish any notes / minutes of the Panel meetings. It is, however, acknowledged that the notes / minutes should have been provided under the provision of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Please see attached the notes of the meetings which have had personal information redacted under Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. It will be noted that some have been titled `Notes’ and some as `Minutes’. Following your request all future meeting records will be titled Notes as this title is more accurate for the way in which the record is being taken.

20191010 Minutes - Adult Advisory Panel -Redacted

20200123 Minutes - Adult Advisory Panel - Redacted  

20200422 Minutes - Adult Advisory Panel - Redacted

20200723 Brief notes - Redacted

20201029 Minutes - Adult Advisory Panel - Redacted

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