Chief Minister’s schedule (FOI)

Request

Could the Chief Minister confirm how many days he spent full time, say between 9am and 5pm, in the office each year since he took office and also what the dates were when he handed over his responsibilities as Chief Minister and the reason for this - e.g. official business, personal holiday etc.?

Response

Only scheduled meetings are recorded in the calendar.  The Chief Minister normally works significantly more than a 9.00 - 5.00 working day, including early morning working through to working late into the night, as well as weekends and public holidays.  

The Chief Minister works from several locations including, but not limited to, the Government's Broad Street offices, his home office, the Government of Jersey's London Office, and remotely, including when travelling elsewhere.   

Many other meetings and discussions happen on a regular basis (which are not scheduled) in order to deal with issues as they arise.   Likewise, preparation time for meetings, general reading of papers, speeches, responses to policy papers and some urgent briefings by officers are not always diarised. Diary records therefore do not readily capture when work commences and work ceases.  

The Chief Minister also attends a significant number of civic engagements, or may be in the States Assembly, media interviews, or on calls or other events, which add to the time spent working outside of the office.   

Since taking office (approximately 1,000 working days, excluding weekends) records held reflect the Chief Minister's calendar showing the following: 

• the Chief Minister was off-Island on official business for approximately - 106 days
• full days of scheduled meetings at Cyril Le Marquand House / Broad Street offices (or online as necessitated by Covid) - 544 days
• at least half a day of scheduled meetings at Cyril Le Marquand House / Broad Street offices (or online as necessitated by Covid) - 139 days. 

It is not possible to accurately quantify the time spent (for example) on preparation time for meetings; speeches; responses to policy papers; preparation for States Assembly meetings / debates; constituency / individual matters or urgent briefings by officers. 

When the Chief Minister is absent, other than on official business, or incapacitated, he ceases to be Chief Minister. Information relating to when he has handed over responsibilities is not held in recorded form, and it is estimated that it would take more than 12.5 hours to collate a full list of these occasions. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

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.

(2) Despite paragraph (1), a scheduled public authority may still supply the information requested on payment to it of a fee determined by the authority in the manner prescribed by Regulations for the purposes of this Article.

(3) Regulations may provide that, in such circumstances as the Regulations prescribe, if two or more requests for information are made to a scheduled public authority –

(a) by one person; or

(b) by different persons who appear to the scheduled public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign, the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them.