PFAS Officer Technical Group 2019 (FOI)

​Request

The PFAS section on the Gov website talks about:

"Officer Technical Group

In February 2019, an Officer Technical Group was established to oversee a programme of work to understand more about levels of PFAS in water, and what implications these may have. The group meets monthly and includes representatives from Environmental and Consumer Protection, Natural Environment, Public Health and Jersey Water."

A

Which individuals are on this group? If you can't name individuals, please list their specific Job Title. 

B

How many meetings have there been since February 2019?

C

When did the group last meet?

D

Who was present at the last meeting?

E

Where can the full log of Minutes from their meetings be seen?

Response

A

The PFAS project board will comprise the following members:

B

34 meetings were held between March 2021 and August 2024. 

C

The last meeting was held on Tuesday 13 August 2024

D

The following members were present at the last meeting:

​E

Meeting notes and actions from March 2021 to August 2024 are attached. Please note some action notes are available from 2020.  

PFAS-TOG-MeetingsCombinedDR.pdf​

Meeting notes are otherwise not held for other dates.

Personal information within the documents has been redacted in accordance with Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. 

Article 33(b) (Commercial Interests) and Article 35 (Formulation and Development of Policies) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 have also been applied.

Articles applied

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

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, or would be likely to, 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.

It is considered 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. 

​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 Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) is withholding the release of certain parts of the information as it relates to the formulation and development of policy and procedure by the public authority.

The following considerations were taken into account:

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure

• disclosure 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 procedural 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, 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 and procedural development as iterations of documents are demonstrative of the development process
• the need for this safe space is considered at its greatest during the live stages of a project
• 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
• disclosure of this information may limit the willingness of parties to provide their honest views and feedback. This would hamper and harm the policy and procedure making process not only in relation to this subject area but in respect of future project development across wider Departmental business.

Taking into account these various factors, the decision has been made to maintain this exemption.​