Ministers attending Labour Party Conference (FOI)

​​​Request

A​

Did any representative of the Jersey Government, such as reps for the Office of the Chief Executive (formerly Chief Minister’s Department, includes External Relations Department and Economy), or any Ministers, attend the Labour party conference?

B

If so, which representatives on behalf of which departments? Please list (and where it is not possible to provide a lower-level employee's name, for instance, because of data protection concerns, please list their job title).

C

What events and/or meetings did they each go to? Please list.

D

Who else attended those events and/or meetings? Please list.

E

Please share with me any materials which were shared as part of those meetings and/or events, for instance, a presentation PowerPoint document, and / or Minutes taken at the meetings.

Response

A

Yes

B

Deputy Farnham Chief Minister, Deputy Gorst Minister for External Relations, Kate Nutt Chief Officer External Relations, the Head of UK and European Affairs, the UK Affairs Attache and an External Relations and Financial Services Private Office official attended Labour Party Conference.

C and D

The Chief Minister engaged with the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, Chancellor Reeves and Business and Trade Secretary of State Reynolds. He also met with several Members of Parliament. 

The Chief Minister attended the Heads of Mission Diplomatic Lunch, Bloomberg Business and International Reception and the Leaders Speech.

The Minster for External Relations met with Helene Duchene (French Ambassador to the UK) and several Members of Parliament.

The Minster for External Relations attended events including the EU Reception, City UK and Business events, Bloomberg Business and International Reception, short meetings with EU Ambassador to the UK, Spanish, Italian, German and Swiss Ambassadors, the Cayman Islands UK representative and several Metro Mayors. 

The Chief Minister and Minster for External Relations met Isle of Man and Guernsey in three CDs format alongside other Chief Ministers. 

Official attendance was split to cover the above event.

E

i) no presentations or other materials were shared by Jersey Ministers and 

ii) Minutes of meetings relate to inter-governmental relations, and as such are considered exempt from release under Article 41 of the Freedom of information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Article applied

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.

Public Interest 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. It is recognised that there is a public interest in providing transparency about Jersey Ministers’ discussions with political leaders in other jurisdictions. However, having considered the public interest, the Scheduled Public Authority concluded that the public interest in disclosing this information at this time is outweighed by the public interest considerations in withholding the information, in support of the Island's interests and to avoid any potential prejudice to the Island's relationship with the United Kingdom and other jurisdictions.​