Government of Jersey

Minister’s travel to Conservative Party Conference (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 03 November 2022.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Original Request

Deputy Philip Ozouf attended the Conservative Party Conference at the ICC in Birmingham between 2 and 5 October as Jersey’s Minister for External Relations and Financial Services. As a senior Minister representing our island, clearly the highest standards are expected. Please could you tell me:

Why did Deputy Ozouf not use the train ticket provided for him to travel from London to Birmingham by the States of Jersey Travel Services?

Was the train ticket a standard or first-class ticket? Was it single or return? How much did the train ticket cost?

Did Deputy Ozouf use States official channels to hire a car, or did he simply make his own arrangements?

If Deputy Ozouf did not use the train ticket provided, was a full refund successfully obtained?

Did Deputy Ozouf report the alleged accident he had with the hire car to the relevant police force? If the accident was reported to the police, how many hours (approximately) after the alleged accident were the police informed?

Did Deputy Ozouf report the alleged accident he had with the hire car to the hire car company? If the accident was reported to the hire car company, how many hours (approximately) after the alleged accident did he inform the hire car company about the alleged accident?

Did Deputy Ozouf use the hire car after he finished his States ministerial work in Birmingham? If not, why not?

Original Response

No train tickets were purchased by or through any member of the Government for Deputy Ozouf for this journey.

Not applicable. There was no train ticket.

Deputy Ozouf made his own arrangements at short notice due to the national rail strike in the UK.

Not applicable. There was no train ticket.

The Government does not hold any information in this regard therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

No. Deputy Ozouf returned the car at the end of the visit.

Article 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.

Internal Review Request

The applicant of the original request responded to receipt of their response on 4 November 2022 as follows:

We know from two Deputies that Deputy Ozouf crashed a hire car and left it in a carpark without telling the firm involved.

So with this response you have covered it up.

Shame.

Central Freedom of Information Unit responded to the applicant on 4 November 2022 to ask if they wished to instigate an Internal Review process. The applicant’s response on 6 November 2022 was as follows:

Well who is telling the truth here and is this being covered up?

As long as an internal review does not take up too much time and is not fobbed off then maybe that would be the most logical direction to take?

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.

A search of emails was conducted using the email back up system (Cryoserver), which holds copies of all emails sent and received by members of the Government of Jersey.

A search was undertaken on the account of Deputy Philip Ozouf using the keywords “Hire Car”, “Hire”, “Car” and “Vehicle”, for the period 2nd to 14th October 2022.

No emails were found in relation to an accident involving the hire car.

The Review Panel were satisfied that the Government of Jersey does not hold any information relating to any accident involving the hire car.

The reviewers have therefore upheld the original response to questions 5 and 6 and the application of Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.