Funding of Lunar New Year since 2022 (FOI)

Request 687015290

1. How much has the Government of Jersey given to fund Lunar New Year in Jersey in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025?

2. Did the Government of Jersey's Creative Island Partnership or Jersey International Culture Centre enter into a formal partnership with Learn.je for the celebration of Lunar New Year in 2025, as stated on all of Learn.je's marketing materials and in the media?

3. Why was 2025's funding of Lunar New Year given to a private entity called Learn.je, when it had previously been organised via the Jersey International Culture Centre?

4. What procurement process was followed before the awarding of the Lunar New Year funding to Learn.je?

5. Has the founder/CEO of Learn.je ever worked for the Government and/or the Jersey International Culture Centre?

6. How much has the Government given to Learn.je in the past three years?

7. Has the Government of Jersey undertaken any wider due diligence investigations into Learn.je, and was the Government officer or minister responsible for approving the Lunar New Year funding satisfied that Lunar New Year is a professional outfit, particularly as many of the links on the business's website forward to ChatGPT?

​Response

1. The costs associated with the Lunar New Year were:

2022: £0

2023: £70,124

2024: £33,223

2025: £20,000 

2. No partnership is in place between the Government of Jersey and learn.je for the 2025 Lunar New Year festival.

3. No funding has been provided to learn.je. The second part of this question is seeking rationale rather than information held by the Government of Jersey. This information is not held. Therefore, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information Jersey (Law) 2011 has been applied.

4. Learn.je are not in contract with the Government of Jersey and no money has been awarded to Learn.je.  Therefore, the requested information is not held, and Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

5. The requested information is not held by the Government of Jersey. Therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

6. The requested information is not held by the Government of Jersey. Therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied. 

7. The Government of Jersey does not have a registered supplied called ‘learn.je’ and therefore no funds have been paid to a company with this name.

8. Please see response to question 2. Suppliers to the Government of Jersey complete our onboarding process, available here Onboarding, orders and payment​

Article 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.​