MyRegistry portal (FOI)

Original Request 

Please could you confirm:

• Which supplier developed the myRegistry portal for the Jersey Financial Services Commission?
• What was the cost incurred to develop myRegistry?
• What are the ongoing annual costs associated with it?
• Was a public procurement process run (for example, such as that defined by the States Procurement Best Practice Procedures)?

Please can you provide any documentation associated with the procurement of myRegistry, such as project brief, RFQs, EoIs, ITT, PQQs, evaluation reports,and so on. 

Original Response 

The information requested is not held by the Government of Jersey. The Jersey Financial Services Commission is not a scheduled public authority under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. Article 3 of the Law applies. 

For further information, the organisations which are covered by the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 are listed in the following link: 

How to make an FOI request (gov.je) 

Article applied 

Article 3 - Meaning of "information held by a public authority"

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority. 

Internal Review Request

I would like to request an internal review on the following basis: 

A

This request relates to information held by the Jersey Financial Services Commission.

B

The Jersey Financial Services Commission was established as a body by resolution of the States in the adoption of the Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998, pursuant to Article 2(1) "There shall be established a body to be known as the Jersey Financial Services Commission".

C

The Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 Schedule 1 (Article 1 (3)) defines a scheduled public authority as "A committee or other body established by resolution of the States or by or in accordance with standing orders of the States Assembly." 

D

The Jersey Financial Services commission therefore meets the definition of a Scheduled Public Authority and is not exempt under Article 3.

E

Further, The Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies to any public authority, not just Scheduled Public Authorities. A public authority is defined in Part 1 of the law to also include: (1)(d) any administration of the States" , (1)(h)(ii) "any body that carries out statutory functions", or  (1)(h)(iv) "any body which appears to the States to exercise functions of a public nature".

On all these counts the Jersey Financial Services Commission is subject to the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 and an exemption can not be applied. I would appreciate it if you could revisit the basis of the exemption applied.

Internal Review Response

This review has been completed by two senior staff members of the Government of Jersey, independent of the original decision-making process.  

The original response has been reviewed and assessed to identify whether the application of the exemption had been applied correctly.  

It is noted that paragraph (3) of Schedule 1 does not capture independent statutory bodies such as the JFSC, but captures bodies established by the Assembly. 

The JFSC, along with a number of independent statutory regulators, do fall within the meaning of the term "an administration of the States" as defined in Article 1 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as follows: 

"administration of the States" means – 

(a)     a department established on behalf of the States; and 

(b)     a body, office or unit of administration, established on behalf of the States (including under an enactment); 

The JFSC is a body established by an enactment and therefore falls within (b) of this definition. 

In the definition of "public authority" in Article 1 of the Law, the public authorities that are an "administration of the States" are referred to as a distinct type of public body from the bodies established by a resolution of the Assembly or under Standing Orders.

Under the Law, paragraph (4) of Schedule 1 makes it clear that a subset of that group, namely the Government Departments established on behalf of the States, were scheduled public authorities.  The effect of the Law is that the JFSC and other bodies, offices and units of administration established by an enactment are public authorities that are capable of being added to Schedule 1, including using the power to amend that Schedule in Article 6 of Law,  however they are not covered by Schedule 1 unless so added (this is illustrated by the addition of the Children Commissioner to Schedule 1 when that office was established).   

Schedule 2 of the Law applies to "Scheduled Public Authorities" as opposed to public authorities.

The reviewers, having considered the application of Article 3 in this instance, concluded that the exemption was appropriate and should be upheld.

Appeal

An Appeal was made to the Jersey Office of the InformationCommissioner on 4 October 2022.

A Decision Notice was issued by the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner on 27 April 2023.

The Decision Notice can be found in the following link:

Decision Notice 3656.pdf (jerseyoic.org)