Rental paid by the occupier of the former Haute de la Garenne site (FOI)

Request

Please can you tell me what the current occupier of the former Haute de la Garenne site, now known as the Jersey Activity and Accommodation Centre, pays in annual rent to the Government of Jersey.

Response

The information you have requested is exempt under Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 because the information is commercially sensitive.

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).

Public Interest Test

Article 33 is a qualified exemption and a public interest test should be carried out by the Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) to determine whether the information should be released.

It is in the public interest to be made aware of any rental fees received by the SPA (the Government of Jersey (GOJ) in relation to the former Haut de la Garenne site.

However, the release of the annual rental fees could potentially disadvantage the tenant and the GOJ’s ability to retain commercial advantage in any future rental negotiations regarding this site.

Therefore, we consider that the likely prejudice to the tenant and to the Government, should this information be released, outweighs the argument that the release is in the public interest.