Government of Jersey buildings drainage systems (FOI)

Request

How many buildings are currently owned by the States of Jersey that have not attended to their surface and foul water drainage so that it currently drains as one and not as two separate entities?

Response

The Government of Jersey does not maintain a list regarding the requested information.

Therefore, this information is not held, and Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law applies.

The systems are not configured in a way that will allow extraction of the details requested.  A manual search of records would be required in order to obtain this information. 

It is estimated that it would take in excess of 12.5 working hours to locate and retrieve the data requested.  Therefore, your request will not be processed further.

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. 

Please note the following items:

• The requested information may not be held, some cases and surveys would be required to determine this information
• Conversion to the single drainage system may not be possible for some buildings, usually depending upon their age
• Exemptions, may have been made in some cases where conversion would require substantial work to be carried out.

Articles applied

Article 10 - Obligation of scheduled public authority to confirm or deny holding Information

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), if –

(a) a person makes a request for information to a scheduled public authority; and

(b) the authority does not hold the information, it must inform the applicant accordingly.

(2) If a person makes a request for information to a scheduled public authority and –

(a) the information is absolutely exempt information or qualified exempt information; or

(b) if the authority does not hold the information, the information would be absolutely exempt

information or qualified exempt information if it had held it, the authority may refuse to inform the applicant whether or not it holds the information if it is satisfied that, in all the circumstances of the case, it is in the public interest to do so.

(3) If a scheduled public authority so refuses –

(a) it shall be taken for the purpose of this Law to have refused to supply the information requested on the ground that it is absolutely exempt information; and

(b) it need not inform the applicant of the specific ground upon which it is refusing the request or, if the authority does not hold the information, the specific ground upon which it would have refused the request had it held the information.

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.