Correspondence between John Rogers and Bernard Place (FOI)

Request

Can you please supply all emails exchanged between John Rogers and Bernard Place, on the subject of the new hospital, from the date of the Staddon Report, 10 December 2018, to the present or as near as possible.

Response

Please see enclosed emails between Director General John Rogers and Bernard Place for the time period 7 December 2019 to 30 January 2019, relating to the future hospital.  Also enclosed are three documents that were attached to the emails.

Email correspondence - JR to BP re hospital (Redacted)

Email correspondence - BP to JR re hospital (Redacted)

Attachment to email of 10 December 2018 - HSC BLM 2019 and forecast projection

Attachment to email of 10 December 2018 - Council of Ministers December 12 2018

Attachment to email of 9 January 2019 - Letter Deputy K. Pamplin

Redactions have been applied to the emails in accordance with the following articles of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

1) Personal information has been redacted in accordance with Article 25 – in this instance the details of individuals below a certain Government of Jersey grade who have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

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 2018.

(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 2018; and

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

2) The following documents have been withheld, in accordance with Article 35.

• attachment to email of 07 December 2018 – FHPOG Terms of reference

• attachment to email of 11 December 2018 – PowerPoint presentation

• attachment to email of 12 December 2018 – Council of Ministers

• attachment to email of 24 December 2018 – R&P BP Track Changes

• attachment to email of 24 December 2018 – Chief Minister’s Proposition – rescindment

• attachment to email of 03 January 2019 – Communications Plan

• attachment to email of 03 January 2019 – Political Management Framework

• attachment to email of 15 January 2019 – MSCP Inclusive Alternative

Article 35 Formulation and development of policies

Information is qualified exempt information if it relates to the formulation or development of any proposed policy by a public authority.

The Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) is withholding the release of certain attachments as they relate to the formulation and development of policy and procedure by the public authority.

Article 35 is a qualified exemption, which means that a public interest test is required to be undertaken by the SPA. It is therefore necessary for the scheduled public authority to examine the circumstances of the case. Following assessment the SPA has to decide whether, on balance, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Although there is a need for transparency, accountability, financial and good decision making by public authorities this information relates to an ongoing situation. The SPA – and indeed good government, requires Ministers and Officers to be provided with full, frank advice from officials about the possible impact of proposed policy, and for officials to be able to discuss and test those proposed policies in a comprehensive way.

The following considerations were taken into account:

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure

• disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public, providing confirmation that the necessary discussions have taken place

• disclosure to the public fulfils an educative role about the early stages in policy development and illustrates how the department engages with parties for this purpose

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information

• in order to best develop policy and provide advice to Ministers, officials need a safe space in which free and frank discussion can take place – discussion of how documentation is presented and provided is considered as integral to policy development as iterations of documents are demonstrative of the policy development process

• the need for this safe space is considered at its greatest during the live stages of a policy

• release of the information at this stage might generate misinformed debate in. This would affect the ability of officials to consider and develop policy away from external pressures, and to advise Ministers appropriately

• premature disclosure of this information may limit the willingness of parties to provide their honest views and feedback. This would hamper and harm the policy–making process not only in relation to this subject area but in respect of future policy development across wider Departmental business

Taking into account the various factors, the SPA decided in favour of withholding the listed documents.

It should also be noted that once a policy is formulated and published, the public interest in withholding information relating to its formulation is diminished, however, the use of the exemption can be supported if it preserves sufficient freedom during the policy formulation phase to explore options without that process being hampered by some expectation of future publication.

3) An attachment to the email of 9 January 2019 has been withheld as it formed a draft response to a recipient who is not one of the parties named in your Freedom of information request.

4) Partial redaction has been applied to the enclosed financial document by way of replacing figures with a series of hashes in order to protect the commercial interests of the States of Jersey further to Article 33.

Article 33 - Commercial Interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –
(a) it constitutes a trade secret; or
(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Article 33 is also a qualified exemption and the following considerations were taken into account:

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure

• disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public on how the States of Jersey is planning on spending future public funds
   

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information

• release of the information at this stage is likely to influence any future tender submissions, jeopardising the value for money objective of the States of Jersey in relation to the use of public funds

Taking into account these factors, the SPA decided in favour of withholding the individual detailed forecasts but they have provided the forecast totals.