Cannabis licensing guidelines (FOI)

Request

Could you please provide the licensing guidelines for the cultivation and / or processing of cannabis and derived products.

Response

The information requested is currently under review and therefore cannot be released at this time. Once the guidelines have been approved they will be published. It is hoped that this should be within the next two months. Article 35 (Formulation and development of policies) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

Article applied

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 the information as it relates to the formulation and development of policy and procedure by the public authority.

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 procedural 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, 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 and procedural development as iterations of documents are demonstrative of the development process

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

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

Taking into account these various factors, the SPA has decided to maintain this exemption.