Criteria for financial grants (FOI)

Request

The States provide financial grants to a wide range of charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Whilst the States accounts provide details of any significant grants that are awarded, I would like to better understand the decision making process.

Please publish details showing:

A

What criteria is applied when considering a grant request;

B

What decision making process is applied; and

C

Details of each grant made in 2015 and 2016, including:

• the name of the organisation requesting the grant

• the amount requested

• the amount granted

• the ratio of grant / request

• whether or not the organisation is treated as a related party in the States accounts

Response

A and B

Both the criteria and decision making process applied will differ depending upon whether a grant is made under an approved scheme or is discretionary. Individual departments may have their own documented processes for grants under approved schemes and one-off grants. Providing the details of these would exceed the cost amount as determined by Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

All departments are required to follow the financial direction on Management of Grants, which can be viewed at the link below:

Management of Grants 20170713

This document is being redrafted and an updated version will be published this year.

C

Grants over £75,000 are listed in the States’ Financial Report and Accounts:

2016 Financial Report and Accounts (starting at page 140)

2015 Financial Report and Accounts (starting at page 154)

Grants of less than £75,000 are listed in the Annex to the States’ Financial Report and Accounts:

2015 Annex to the Financial Report and Accounts (starting at page 313)

The 2016 Annex is in preparation at the date of this response and will be published shortly.

All related party transactions are detailed in the States’ Financial Report and Accounts:

2016 Financial Report and Accounts (starting at page 180)

2015 Financial Report and Accounts (starting at page 202)

To provide details of the amounts requested and the ratio of grant / request would exceed the cost amount as determined by Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Articles and exemptions applied

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.