Blood contamination with PFAS compounds (FOI)

​Request

On 6 June 2024 and 31 July 2024 members of the public attended a meeting with Ministers and officials of Public Health, at Les Ormes, concerning PFAS. 

Members of the public informed the officials that, via independent blood testing of 120 islanders, they discovered their blood is contaminated with the same PFAS compounds which were spilled on the land in St Ouen. Many of those reporting the contamination indicated that they drink only mains tap water. 

Other members of the public informed the room that they had their mains water tested by Jersey Water, and that those same individual PFAS compounds found in the islanders blood samples, were also to be found in the mains water.   Therfore, please advise:

A 

What are islanders' rights regarding clean water?

B

Do islanders have the  right to not have their blood contaminated from the water supply?

C

What action is being taken?

D

When will all islanders be able to drink water which does not contain any PFAS?

Response

A and B

The Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 gives a right to request information that is held in recorded form, unless exempt. This aspect of the request poses a question rather than seeking information held in recorded form. In any event, this information is not held. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

C

The requested information is exempt under Article 35 (Formulation and development of policies) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as this project currently remains policy under development. 

Release of the information at this stage would likely generate misinformed debate. This could affect the ability of officials to consider and develop policy away from external pressures, and to advise Ministers appropriately.  

Article 35 is a qualified exemption; therefore, a public interest test has been applied and is shown at the end of this response.

The information which is available about PFAS is on the Government of Jersey’s website linked below:

PFAS in Jersey (gov.je)

D

Information regarding when islanders will be able to drink water which does not contain any PFAS is not held and 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 35 - Formulation and development of policies 

Information is qualified exempt information if it relates to the formulation or development of any proposed policy by a public authority.

​Public Interest Test

The following considerations were taken into account: 

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure  

• Disclo​sure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public, providing confirmation that the necessary discussions have taken place
  
• Disclosure to the public fulfils an educative role about the early stages in policy development and illustrates how the department engages with parties for this purpose.   

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information  

• In order to best develop policy and provide advice to Ministers, officials need a safe space in which free and frank discussion can take place – discussion of how documentation is presented and provided is considered as integral to policy development as iterations of documents are demonstrative of the policy development process  
• The need for this safe space is considered at its greatest during the live stages of a policy 
• Release of the information at this stage might generate misinformed debate. This would affect the ability of officials to consider and develop policy away from external pressures, and to advise Ministers appropriately 
• Premature disclosure of this information may limit the willingness of parties to provide their honest views and feedback. This would hamper and harm the policy–making process not only in relation to this subject area but in respect of future policy development across wider departmental business. 

Following assessment, the Government of Jersey has concluded that, on balance, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. 

It should also be noted that once a policy is formulated and published, the public interest in withholding information relating to its formulation is diminished, however, the use of the exemption can be supported if it preserves sufficient freedom during the policy formulation phase to explore options without that process being hampered by some expectation of future publication.​​