Travel during lockdown (FOI)

Request

Details / costs of off Island travel for Public Administration / Political / Civil Service / Public Employees.

A

Has the Chief Executive or any Government of Jersey Director general, politicians or civil servants or persons contracted travelled off Island during the official period of lock down that commenced on the 30th March 2020

B

If any of the prescribed individuals have travelled off Island could dates and the specific reason for travel be provided

C

Can the method of off Island travel be confirmed as to whether this was by Private Charter or a dedicated scheduled flight? Could the off-Island carrier / operators be clearly specified?

D

Please give or identify off Island flights during this period from the 30 March..

These questions do not apply to the Health and Community Services

Response

For the purpose of this request, it should be noted that it is not possible to disaggregate Health and Community Services staff from the data held on approved travel.

The request response covers the period from the commencement of lockdown on 30 March 2020 to 11 May (Move to Phase three of the Safe Exit Framework).

A

Neither the Chief Executive, nor any Director General, has travelled off island during the lockdown period.

No Minister have travelled off island during the lockdown period.

Civil servants and contract workers would only have travelled in exceptional circumstances, such travel pre-approved as necessary travel.

Necessary travel refers to either:

• essential government workers or contractors travelling to / from Jersey for the purposes of their work

• essential private or voluntary sector workers travelling to / from Jersey for the purposes of their work

• travelling to / from the UK for medical treatment;

• travelling to reach a permanent home in Jersey or the UK,

• travel on compassionate grounds

• travelling to reach a permanent home outside the UK

• travelling for educational purposes

Further details in relation to essential travel requirements are available at the following link:

Travel advice for coronavirus (COVID-19)

B

As detailed in question A, travel would only have occurred if the traveller had prior approval. Criteria for travel are often personal in nature, and the information in response to this request is therefore exempt under Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

It is also noted that to review passenger manifests for all flights and to reconcile all passengers to their requests for travel would exceed the time allowance of a Freedom of Information request as set out within the Freedom of Information Regulations (Jersey) 2014.

C

All travellers would have travelled by the only available flights, the Government of Jersey / Blue Islands Air Service.

D

Blue Islands operated flights on the following dates, both outbound and inbound. Not all flights carried Government employees or contractors:

6 April

7 April

8 April

9 April

10 April

12 April

13 April

14 April

15 April

16 April

17 April

20 April

22 April

24 April

27 April

29 April

1 May

4 May

6 May

8 May

11 May

Articles 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.

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.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.