Tender process for the Air Ambulance contract (FOI)

Request

It has been widely reported in the media that a new contract has been signed to provide fixed wing Air Ambulance services for Jersey.

A

Can you confirm if this process went out to tender, what length the initial contract that has been signed is and how many alternative operators and their names were consulted and placed a bid.

B

Can you also confirm if any additional sums have been agreed above the original contract and what percentage increase the new contract is in relation to the old contact?

C

If the project did not go to tender please indicate why, if any other local parties were given the opportunity to discuss a service and the annual value of the new contract. Whilst this may be deemed as commercially sensitive if it did not go to tender, it must be recognised that there are other local providers who could have provided this service if asked, and that there is no way of recognising if the new contract is delivering value to the public of Jersey.

Response

A joint Air Ambulance contract with Guernsey and Jersey has been signed with Gama Aviation.

A

The Government of Jersey (GOJ) were notified earlier in the year of the then supplier’s intension to terminate the air ambulance business. It was deemed neither feasible nor appropriate to conduct an open and competitive procurement exercise undertaking such an exercise would have caused significant delay in service provision and was deemed as too high a risk to patients who need emergency or urgent treatment in the UK that cannot be provided on Island. Therefore, an exemption was sought and approved.

The exact details of the contract are deemed commercially sensitive and is exempt under Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Unless an exemption is applied, as in this case, for the reasons stated above, all Government of Jersey tenders are communicated on the Channel Islands Tender Portal, which also sends automatic notifications to organizations that have registered interest in specific industry areas.

B

The exact details of the contract are deemed commercially sensitive and is exempt under Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

C

Please refer to Point 1 above. The GOJ will always seek value for money when procuring services and have systems in place to monitor performance.

Government departments follow the Government of Jersey’s procurement processes as defined in Financial Direction 5.1:

Financial Direction 5.1

All exemptions to the process are subject to an internal approval process.

Article applied

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).

Prejudice / public interest test

Article 33 (b) allows an authority to refuse a request for information where its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information). Whilst we accept that the public may have an interest in the value of Government of Jersey contracts, we believe the exact contract values are commercially sensitive and that the release of this data could affect the negotiation of future contract values.