Consultations (FOI)

​Request

A

The annual budget for holding a government consultations.

B

The cost of holding a consultation to the States.

C

How many consultations were held in 2014, 2015 and 2016?

D

The cost to the States of holding consultations in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Response

A

There are no annual budgets set aside for government consultations. The majority are dealt with as part of business as usual and it would not be possible for us within 12.5 working hours to establish the cost for each consultation. Further information is therefore refused under Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

B

It is not possible to provide this information as it is not held. As indicated above, most consultations are dealt with as part of business as usual.

C

This information is absolutely exempt under Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as it is already accessible and can be found at the following link:

Consultations

D

Please see responses above.

Exemption(s) and / or refusal(s)

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.

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive.

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.