Communications Directorate staffing (FOI)

Request

A

Please provide the total number of staff presently working for communications or in the press office for all parts of the Government of Jersey.

B

Please advise of the total number of staff for each year of the last ten years, working for communications or in the press office for all parts of the Governemnt of Jersey.

C

Please advise of the total cost of the Press Office and the Communications Directorate for the last ten years? 

D

Plesae provide, for each individual that works for the communications team or press office, a breakdown of their salary banding.  Ifthis is not possible, the number of people in each salary banding would suffice.

E

Please provide the breakdown of all the positions within the Press Office and Communications Department and where these roles report to? 

F

Please advise of the number of Press Officers specifically reporting to the Chief Minister or the Deputy Chief Minister.

Response

A

As of October 2023, there are 34 people working in the Communications Directorate, this includes five press officers.

Across Government, there are an additional nine communications officers employed by departments and part of the Communications Directorate. 

B

Please note that in 2020 there was consolidation of Communication Officers from departments into the Directorate and an increase in headcount in the internal communications team and a new in-house marketing and design team was established to offer an extensive array of resources for marketing, design, and video / photography production (to save money by providing services in house that would have otherwise been spent with external agencies).  

Sourcing the data prior to the establishment of a central Communications Directorate would result in the need to bring business partners together across multiple departments within the Government of Jersey. It has therefore been estimated that to retrieve this data would exceed the 12.5-hour timescale prescribed in the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.  

C

The Communications Directorate sits within the Office of the Chief Executive. The budget allocation for this department is listed annually in the States of Jersey Annual Report and Accounts, links to which can be found below: 

Annual Report and Accounts for the States of Jersey (gov.je)

Details of the overall staffing (and other related costs) spend for the Communications Directorate up to 2022 are publicly available on www.gov.je in response to a previous Freedom of Information request, which can be accessed via the link below. Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to this information.

Communications Directorate Staffing (FOI)

Updated details of how much money was spent in the Communications Department are as below: 

The numbers included under budget is per the approved Government Plan and do not include any in-year budget changes (such as pay-awards).

D

Employees working for the Communications Directorate are on civil service graded salaries ranging from Grade 6 to Grade 15. Disclosure controls have been applied to prevent the identification of individuals according to Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. 

• Grades 6-9 - 9 employees
  
• Grade 10 - 10.6 employees
• Grade 12 – 10 employees
• Grade 13-15 – <5 
• Director of Communications – SPOT Salary.

The numbers above are representative of staff who are paid by the Communication Directorate.

Further information on Civil Servant pay scales and salaries is published on gov.je and can be accessed via the link below: 

Civil Service pay scales.pdf (gov.je)

E

Please see the organisation chart in the attached document which details the positions within the Communications Directorate and the reporting lines. 

F

Zero Press Officers report to the Chief-Minister or the Deputy Chief-Minister as per the structure chart attached. 

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. 

 Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain 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 2005.

(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 2005; 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.