Sanctions Licence applications (FOI)

​​​​Request

Please confirm the number of licences requested and licences granted by the Minister under the sanctions regime, broken down by specific licensing ground from 2022 to date.​

Response

Please see a breakdown of the number of Sanctions Licence Applications submitted to the Minister for External Relations and the number of licences issued by the Minister for External Relations for 2022, 2023, and 2024 to date below. 

Details of the licensing grounds under which each licencing decision has been made, are exempt from disclosure under Article 31, Article 32 and Article 41 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. 

Articles applied 

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.

Article 32 - Legal professional privilege

Information is qualified exempt information if it is information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.

Public Interest Test 

Whilst it is recognised that the strong public interest in protecting Law Officers’ advice may still be overridden in some cases if there are particularly strong factors in favour of disclosure, conversely, disclosing the advice or whether advice was or will be sought could inhibit the Law Officers from (1) giving frank advice (2) inhibit government bodies in taking advice for fear of its publication; and (3) inhibit the full disclosure to the Law Officers of all material relevant to the advice being sought and therefore real weight ought to be afforded to this aspect of the Law Officers’ Convention.

Disclosing either the legal advice or the fact of whether specific advice was sought to the public is not a greater consideration of public interest that requires disclosure of the advice or confirmation of what advice was given. It does not outweigh the three principles set out above which require the long-standing Law Officer Convention to be maintained. Therefore, the balance is in favour of maintaining the exemption and it is not considered the public interest in disclosure outweighs the preservation of the Convention on this occasion.

Article 41 - International relations

(1) Information is qualified exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice relations between Jersey and –

(a) the United Kingdom;

(b) a State other than Jersey;

(c) an international organization; or

(d) an international court.

(2) Information is qualified exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice –

(a) any Jersey interests abroad; or

(b) the promotion or protection by Jersey of any such interest.

(3) Information is also qualified exempt information if it is confidential information obtained from –

(a) a State other than Jersey;

(b) an international organization; or

(c) an international court.

(4) In this Article, information obtained from a State, organization or court is confidential while –

(a) the terms on which it was obtained require it to be held in confidence; or

(b) the circumstances in which it was obtained make it reasonable for the State, organization or court to expect that it will be so held.

(5) In this Article –

“international court” means an international court that is not an international organization and that was established –

(a) by a resolution of an international organization of which the United Kingdom is a member; or

(b) by an international agreement to which the United Kingdom was a party;

“international organization” means an international organization whose members include any two or more States, or any organ of such an organization;

“State” includes the government of a State and any organ of its government, and references to a State other than Jersey include references to a territory for whose external relations the United Kingdom is formally responsible.

Public Interest Test and Prejudice Test 

The public interest in respect of Article 41 is weighted in favour of maintaining the exemption unless equally strong countervailing public interest arguments favour the disclosure of the information. 

The sanctions regime implementation is not static but subject to ongoing refinement and change (as reflected in the amendments and revisions to the use and application of acceptable licencing grounds for sanctions licences).

It is recognised that there is a degree of public interest in providing transparency about the island's sanctions regime, however having considered the public interest, the Scheduled Public Authority concluded that, in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011, the public interest in disclosing a breakdown of the specific licensing grounds, is outweighed by the public interest considerations in withholding such information.​​