Training for Judiciary staff (FOI)

​Request

Good afternoon,

Please provide:

A

A list of courses, training sessions and other training opportunities attended by members of the judiciary in relation to the Domestic Abuse Law 2022.

B

For each of the above, which member(s) of the judiciary were in attendance.

C

Where there were assessments during or after the session, the result of these assessments.

I understand judiciary to mean the Bailiff and Deputy Bailiff, Commissioners, Judges of Appeal, any other judge, Jurats, Magistrate, Assistant and Relief Magistrates, Viscount, Deputy Viscount.

Thank you.

Response

The Bailiff’s Chambers is not scheduled under the FOI Law and so is not obliged to respond to FOI requests but has provided the following information:

The Jurats have training days every six months at which new legislation is discussed including the Domestic Abuse (Jersey) Law 2022.  Furthermore, every year since 2021, the Royal Court has organised annual training for members of the judiciary including the Bailiff, Deputy Bailiff, Commissioners, Jurats, the Magistrate and Assistant Magistrate.  One of the two days is set aside for criminal justice and procedure and the trainer is an experienced English circuit judge who also trains members of the judiciary in England and Wales.  The family/children training is carried out by an experienced English judge who also now sits as a Commissioner of the Royal Court whilst continuing to sit as an English judge.  Issues in relation to domestic abuse will regularly feature in the course of both training days.  

The Viscount and Deputy Viscount do not sit in court and do not consider cases under the Domestic Abuse (Jersey) Law 2022.  The judges of the Jersey Court of Appeal are generally not resident in Jersey and would receive training in the jurisdictions where they practise.

In addition, the members of the Jersey judiciary also received specific training exclusively focused upon the Domestic Abuse (Jersey) Law 2022 in October 2023, shortly after the law came into force in June 2023.  The trainers were Kate Bex KC and Sarah Przybylska.  We decline to provide a list of the members of the judiciary who attended the training sessions as that is their personal data.  There was not an assessment/exam taken after the session and such an assessment/exam would be extremely unusual.

Later this year members of the Jersey judiciary are to receive training focused on domestic abuse from Professor Jo Delahunty KC, Emeritus Gresham Professor of Law.  Professor Delahunty is a KC and part-time English judge.  This training has also been arranged by the Royal Court.

Additional information held by the Judicial Greffe, which is a scheduled public authority under the FOI Law is provided below.

The following sessions and training opportunities were available to the Magistrate’s Court judiciary:

The 12 October 2023 training is the one referenced in the response from the Bailiff’s Chambers.

We decline to provide details of which members of the judiciary were in attendance because that is third party personal data which is absolutely exempt under Article 25(2) of the FOI Law.

​Article 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 2005.

(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 2005; and

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