Havre des Pas Lido report commissioned by Deputy Tom Binet (3) (FOI)

​Request

Following concerns about the management of the relationship with the tenants at the Havre De Pas Lido I would like the following answers.

This is of huge public interest as it involves the spending of public monies on a facility to be used by all those resident in Jersey and our visitors.

I would like to request a copy of the full Graeme Smith Report commissioned by the Minister for Infrastructure in 2023 with regards to the commercial tenant at the Havre Des Pas Bathing Pool and Jersey Property Holdings, with all supporting documentation.

Please you can answer these specific questions:

A

Was a report commissioned by the Minister of Infrastructure in 2023?

B

Who was the Minister of Infrastructure at this time?

C

What were the recommendations of this report?

D

Why was this report that was publicly funded not shared with the Jersey people?

E

Why was the Lido not even mentioned in State of the Estate Annual Report?

F

How did management of the Lido score in the five domains of island property strategy objectives?  especially -

i. Customer focused - Meets the needs of the client and building occupiers

​ii. Financial - Economic and efficient operation, facilitating investment, supporting growth and regeneration, and delivering value for money.

G

Please include minutes of any meetings held by Government of Jersey staff with regards to Havre de Pas Lido in the last three years.

H

Please share any conflicting interests of any of the Government of Jersey staff or Ministers involved in the Havre de Pas Lido management and negotiations.

Response

The Havre Des Pas Lido report and appendices were released in the Freedom of Information response linked below:  

Report into Havre des Pas Lido commissioned by Deputy Tom Binet (FOI)​

It should be noted that the requested report was exempted from release under Article 26 (Information supplied in confidence) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

A and B

Deputy Tom Binet, in his role as Minister for Infrastructure requested the completion of the referenced report in 2023.

C

The requested report does not include any recommendations, therefore this information is not held and Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

However, it should be noted that a preferred option is provided in the Ministerial Briefing Note (Appendix H), included in the response linked above.

D

The Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 gives a right to request information that is held in recorded form, unless exempt. 

This part of the request poses a question rather than seeking information held in a recorded form. Therefore, this information is not held and Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

E

The Lido was not specifically mentioned in the 2023 State of the Estate report as it is a strategic report covering over 800 sites and is set out at a portfolio rather than specific site level, unless there have been major project works or other issues such as a site disposal, or acquisition, to report on.

F

The high-level strategy objectives are at strategic level and not directly applicable to individual sites, which are measured against more specific performance measures outlined in Section 9 of the Island Property Estate Strategy.  Therefore, this information is not held and Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

G

The requested minutes are exempt under Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as the information is accessible on www.gov.je  within the previous Freedom of Information response linked above.

For completeness, further information is also available when this matter was discussed in the States Assembly on 27 April 2022, Item 5.  Please see the following link:

Hansard (gov.je)

H

The Government of Jersey is not aware of any conflicting interests regarding the Havre des Pas Lido management and negotiations.

Articles applied

Article 10 - Obligation of scheduled public authority to confirm or deny holding Information

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), if –

(a) a person makes a request for information to a scheduled public authority; and

(b) the authority does not hold the information, it must inform the applicant accordingly.

Article 26 - Information supplied in confidence

Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it was obtained by the scheduled public authority from another person (including another public authority); and

(b) the disclosure of the information to the public by the scheduled public authority holding it would constitute a breach of confidence actionable by that or any other person.

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means 

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.​