Policy Products Procurement Framework and appointment of Alex Khaldi (FOI)

​​​​​​​​​Request

Further to the response to question D in the Freedom of Information request linked below, please advise the following:-

Appointment of Alex Khaldi as Interim Director (FOI)

​A

Who are the members of the Policy Products Procurement Framework?

B

Please provide a copy of the Framework.

C

Who was the lead official from the Policy Products Procurement Framework?

D

Please provide the detail of the work required.

E

Who decided which was the most appropriate company of the pre-approved companies for the work to be considered with and subsequently agreed with?

F

Which other pre-approved companies were considered for the work required? 

G

As Mr Khaldi is employed as an employee of Think.Do Consulting, please advise if any other employees of this company are currently engaged in work on behalf of the Government of Jersey?

H

Please confirm if Mr Khaldi pays tax in Jersey or in the UK.

I

Please advise when the current contract with Think.Do Consulting is due to expire.

J

Please advise how much we have paid to this company over the last 3 years up until the present day.

K

Please advise if any further work is envisaged to be undertaken either by Mr Khaldi as an individual, or as an employee of Think.Do Consulting?

L

Are any contracts in place, or envisaged for the near future, with any other company owned by Mr Khaldi or his spouse? 

Response

A

It has been assumed for the purpose of this response that ‘members’ refers to the list of available companies registered through the Policy Products Procurement Framework. It is considered this information is commercially sensitive, therefore Article 33 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law has been applied.   

B

Please see response to question A.   

C

The Framework was established in 2021 by Paul Wylie, Group Director of Policy.  

D

Please see the answer to questions A and B above.   

E

The lead official for the work would have determined this, which is standard procedure. As set out in the Public Finances Manual, a Procurement Framework should be used as this provides the best value for money.  

F

The framework considerations are commercially sensitive, Article 33 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to this information.  

G

This information is not held by the Government of Jersey. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.   

H

Any income tax liability will be charged as set out in the Income Tax (Jersey) Law 1961. 

Members of Revenue Jersey are prohibited from disclosing information by virtue of Part 3 and Schedule 1 to the Income Tax (Jersey) Law 1961 whereby the Comptroller and Officers of that department take an Oath of Office before the Royal Court which provides, inter alia, that:

“you will not disclose any information which may come to your knowledge in the performance of your duties, except to such persons only as shall act in execution of the said laws and where it shall be necessary to disclose the same to them for the purposes of the said laws, or in so far as you may be required to disclose the same for the purposes or in the course of a prosecution for an offence against the said laws.”

Therefore, the information requested is absolutely exempt information under Article 29 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011, as the disclosure of the information by the Scheduled Public Authority holding it is prohibited by or under an enactment.

I 

The Framework will reopen for new and existing providers by the end of 2024. It will be a matter for Think.Do Consulting as to whether it wishes to bid to renew its access to the Framework at that point.  

J

Spend on all consultancy firms is published on a six-monthly basis as a Report to the States Assembly. The last report published covered the period to June 2022, there were no fees paid to this company in the period covered, or in previous reports. The next report is expected to be published within 12 weeks of the date of the request, therefore Article 36 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to this information.   

K and L

No information is held by the Government of Jersey. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies. 

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 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 as would be likely to harm the commercial interests of the SPA in respect of the imminent tender process.

Article 36 - Information intended for future publication

(1) Information is qualified exempt information if, at the time when the request for the

information is made, the information is being held by a public authority with a view to

its being published within 12 weeks of the date of the request.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground

must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant –

(a) of the date when the information will be published;

(b) of the manner in which it will be published; and

(c) by whom it will be published.

(3) In this Article, “published” means published –

(a) by a public authority; or

(b) by any other person.

Public Interest Test 

Article 36 is a qualified exemption, which means that a public interest test has to be undertaken to examine the circumstances of the case and decide whether, on balance, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. 

• Public interest considerations favouring disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public.
• Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information 

It is intended to publish the report within 12 weeks of the receipt of this request on www.gov.je. In it is reasonable for government to publish reports in an orderly manner, following completion of appropriate internal processes, and publishing in advance, and in such close proximity to expected publication date, would potentially undermine the orderly publication and conduct of government work (when the public benefit of earlier publication under the Law would derive limited benefit). ​