Costs relating to the Care Inquiry (FOI)

Request

With regard to the subject of historic child abuse, I would like to know the accumulative cost to date for the tax payer of everything. To include:

A

The cost of Operation Rectangle including the money spent on investigations when suspending Mr Graham Power.

B

The total cost so far of the Jersey Care Inquiry.

C

The total cost of employing a Children's Commissioner with support Staff.

D

Any other miscellaneous costs to do with the same subject matter since the Police made the Island aware of investigations in 2008.

E

I would also like to know what monies have been set aside for future costs including potential compensation claims and the employment of additional personnel.

Response

A

The requested information is accessible to the applicant by other means and is therefore exempt under Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

The cost of Operation Rectangle is available at the following links:

Operation Rectangle (Historical Child Abuse Enquiry) - review of the efficient and effective use of resources

Cost of police overtime relating to historic abuse inquiry (FOI)

The cost of Operation Haven, which was an independent disciplinary investigation by Wiltshire Police following the suspension of Mr Power, is available in paragraph 2.18 at the following link:

Operation Haven

The cost of the Napier Report which was commissioned to review the suspension process of Mr Power is available at the following link:

Napier Report (into the suspension of the former Chief Officer of Police)

Mr Power’s total remuneration from the point of suspension is available at the following link:

Remuneration of Graham Power (FOI)

B

The total cost of the Care Inquiry to February 2017 is provided within the following Treasury report:

Independent Jersey Care Inquiry costs to February 2017

The Care Inquiry Panel ceased to be an official committee of inquiry once the 2017 report was published in July 2017, though some additional costs accrued.

Updating these figures to the end of 2018 provides total costs of £21,939,233 (made up of £15,301,906 costs to 2018 and £6,637,327 departmental costs).

The total funding approved by the Council of Ministers was £23,000,000, the detailed breakdown of which can be located at the following link:

Central Contingency allocation for costs associated with Independent Jersey Care Inquiry (IJCI)

C

Information in relation to the staffing costs of the Children’s Commissioner is available through the following previously published Freedom of Information response:

Children's Commissioner (FOI)

D

Information in relation to the cost of responding to the Care Inquiry recommendations is available through the following link:

Cost of responding to the Recommendations

Information detailing the travel and accommodation costs of the Care Inquiry Panel is available within the following published Freedom of Information responses; though it should be noted that such costs are also included within the total figure in question A:

Independent Jersey Care Inquiry panel travel costs (FOI)

E

With schemes of this nature it is difficult know how many applications will be received, or the amount of redress payment per application, therefore accurate estimates of cost are not available.

However, based on what is known about number of children in residential care, foster care or Les Chenes, it is estimated that the cost of the scheme could be up to £6.5 million.

Additional information on expected spend on Care Inquiry implementation is available on page 200 of the Government Plan, accessible at the following link:

Proposed Government Plan 2020 - 2023

Note: It is not possible at present to include all cost and all potential costs, as work in relation to the Care Inquiry, and in relation to its findings, is ongoing.

Article applied

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.