Letters to public regarding VivaCity cameras (FOI)

​​​​Request

A

With regard to the Vivacity AI cameras and sensors, please advise whether any surveys or letters were sent out to the public, in particular, to the residents in close proximity to them?  

B

Please provide a full breakdown of the project cost to date.  

C

Please identify any ongoing costs and any forward commitments in relation to the project., for example, are further cameras or sensors commissioned to be installed? If so, at what further cost?  

D

Please advise whether any permanent or temporary staff were hired for this project, and the costs for such hiring. 

Response

A

The Government of Jersy shared a VivaCity notice and a link to the pre-trial survey on the Infrastructure & Environment Facebook and Twitter pages on 9 October 2023. 

The same households were chosen as for the previous letter drop in June 2023. 

B

The total amount spent on the St John’s Road project, which includes the VivaCity cameras, up to the end of November is approximately £16,600. ​

Information regarding a breakdown of these costs is exempt under Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as details of the transaction fees and percentages charged are considered commercially sensitive.

Article 33 is a qualified exemption; therefore, a public interest test has been applied and is shown at the end of this response.

C

The Government of Jersey currently have no further plans to install VivaCity AI sensors for this three-month trial / project.

D

No external staff were hired for this Project.

Article applied

Article 33   Commercial interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(a)     it constitutes a trade secret; or

(b)     its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Public interest test

Article 33 (b) is a prejudice-based exemption. That means that in order to engage this exemption there must be a likelihood that disclosure would cause prejudice to the interest that the exemption protects. In addition, this is a qualified exemption and consideration must be given to the public interest in maintaining the exemption.

The Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) considers that providing information could prejudice the commercial interests of the Government of Jersey and / or third parties. There may be public interest in the commercial information, however it was considered that this is outweighed by the potential for commercial and or financial damage.​