Beaulieu Convent School 2019 loan (FOI)

Request 

An up to £7.3m loan was approved by the States of Jersey to Beaulieu Convent School in 2019. One of the loan provisions stated: "Prior to the release of funds, the School will be required to provide invoices to substantiate all loan drawdowns, and the Treasurer of the States will undertake regular meetings with the School and project co-ordinators to ensure that construction is being undertaken in line with the original plans and remains on schedule.

The Treasurer of the States will also agree with the School a format for regular reporting, which will cover the conditions of the loan and other relevant additional indicators, e.g. level of pupil numbers, delays in construction, and limits on other capital expenditure."

I would like to request the following:

A

A breakdown of drawdowns and repayments on the loan facility by Beaulieu Convent School;

B

Copy of the latest minutes from the regular governance meeting between the representative from the States Treasury and Beaulieu Convent School;

C

Copy of the latest report issued by Beaulieu to the States Treasury as per the final provision in the aforementioned extract of the loan proposal.

Response

The provision of the loan to Beaulieu School was approved by the States Assembly through P.96/2019. The final loan terms and conditions are confidential between the Borrower (Beaulieu) and the Lender (the Minister for Treasury and Resources), but it can be confirmed that there has been no breach of the loan conditions since the original approval of the States Proposition.

Propositions (statesassembly.gov.je)

A 

The drawdown and repayment schedule are confidential between the Borrower and the Lender. However, it can be confirmed that the total amount drawn against the original approval is circa £2.65million. Articles 26 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

B

Meetings between Treasury officials and the Borrower's representatives are not formalised through the recording of minutes. As a result of the deferral of capital projects due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and other funding sources being obtained by the Borrower, the burden of loan governance was scaled back accordingly, nevertheless meetings continued to take place on a semi-annual basis. The next meeting is scheduled for 13th October 2022. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

C

The Treasurer of the States and the Borrower agreed that the most appropriate format for reporting would be through independent third-party oversight. Publication of the reports is not permitted under confidentiality clauses that exist in the service agreement between the third-party provider and the States of Jersey. Article 26 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Articles applied

Article 3 - Meaning of "information held by a public authority"

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 26 - Information supplied in confidence 

Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it was obtained by the scheduled public authority from another person (including another public authority); and

(b) the disclosure of the information to the public by the scheduled public authority holding it would constitute a breach of confidence actionable by that or any other person.