Free school meals (2) (FOI)

​Request

A

Please confirm the value of the deal to provide free school meals to schools from September to December 2024? 

B

Please confirm the tender information and information on how many companies bid for the contract? How long the contract is for and is there an option to renew? How much will meals cost taxpayers per child? 

C

Are paid for meals for students subsidised and, if so, by how much?

Response

A

The department has determined that the contract cost would be exempt under Article 33(b) (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as details of the contract are considered commercially sensitive.

​B

An Expression of Interest process was undertaken to take part in the pilot and an evaluation process was undertaken.

The current contract is in place until July 2025 when it will be reviewed. 

The Department has determined that it is not possible to calculate the meal cost to the taxpayer per child as some are fully subsidised and some are capped. The number of meals provided and subsidised also varies day to day therefore this information is not held in a recordable format and Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

C

There is a 100% subsidy for pupils meeting the eligibility criteria for free school meals. The price of parental contribution is capped for all other pupils receiving meals at £2.50. 

The total cost to the Government of Jersey for subsidising meals so far this year to August 2024 is £795,000.

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 by the potential for commercial and or financial damage.​