Government of Jersey

Cost of PCR tests since their introduction (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 28 September 2021.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

Please can you provide the following?:

The monthly government spend on Covid-19 PCR tests since their introduction, indicating the category breakdown (ie inbound travel, contact tracing, self-referral and workforce testing)

The names of the third party companies being used to administer and process the PCR tests

Response

Please see table below that shows the Government of Jersey spend on PCR tests since April 2020. Information on the category breakdown (ie inbound travel and so on) is not held, as per Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

The cost per month varies, due to the timing of posting costs to the ledger and the dates on which the ledger is closed:

Year	Month	Amount
2020	April	£108,086
2020	May	£887,297
2020	June	£354,919
2020	July	£986,617
2020	August	£2,031,218
2020	September	£3,598,564
2020	October	£1,538,438
2020	November	£4,082,967
2020	December	£5,321,702
2021	January	£1,141,946
2021	February	£2,827,537
2021	March	£2,445,177
2021	April	£2,299,050
2021	May	£1,470,299
2021	June	£5,248,029
2021	July	£5,507,073
2021	August	£4,577,069

Test processing is currently undertaken by ‘Open Cell’; this has been publicly reported and is accessible by other means, therefore Article 23 the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

Airport lab now processing commercial covid tests | Bailiwick Express

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 information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.