Foreshore encroachment (FOI)

​​​​​Request

A

Please provide a copy of the advice provided by Jersey Property Holdings and or the Law Officers’ Department in response to the Planning Applications Panel request in their 19th meeting on 7 December 2023 for advice in relation to the foreshore encroachment matter raised in the Objection presented to the meeting with respect to application P/2023/0530 Les Homets. See annotated Minutes of the 19th Meeting uploaded with this application.

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In the subsequent Planning Applications Panel meeting’s (22 February 2024) hearing of the same application, the Chairman referred to the substance of this advice, but there is no record of this advice in the application’s documentation in the Planning Register. 

Response

A review has been undertaken and no records of advice by Jersey Property Holdings or the Law Officers is held. Therefore, article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies. 

The draft Minutes of the meeting held on 22 February 2024 also make no reference to any such advice.

Any advice provided directly to the Chairman by the Law Officers would be exempt from release under Article 31 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Article 31 is a qualified exemption, therefore, a public interest test has been applied and is shown at the end of this response.

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 31 - Advice by the Bailiff, Deputy Bailiff or a Law Officer

Information is qualified exempt information if it is or relates to the provision of advice by the Bailiff, Deputy Bailiff or the Attorney General or the Solicitor General.

Public Interest Test

Article 31 of the Freedom of Information  Law recognises the longstanding constitutional Convention that government does not reveal whether Law Officers have or have not advised on a particular issue, or the content of any such advice. 

The underlying purpose of this confidentiality is to protect fully informed decision making by allowing government to seek legal advice in private, without fear of any adverse inferences being drawn from either the content of the advice or the fact that it was sought. It ensures that government is neither discouraged from seeking advice in appropriate cases, nor pressured to seek advice in inappropriate cases. 

The request for information about whether or not advice was sought or will be sought falls within the Article 31 exemption.​