Cost of furnishing new Government of Jersey office (FOI)

Request

Please confirm the total spent on furnishing the new Government offices which are set to open in summer 2024 on the previous Cyril Le Marquand House site, broken down into: item of furniture, where it was purchased from, cost per unit, number of units purchased, and total cost.

For example: type of desk (IKEA MICKE desk), company purchased from (IKEA), cost of desk (£75), number of those desks bought (12), and total spent on those types of desk (£900).

Response

The new Government building is being procured under a Development Agreement (the ‘Agreement’) at a fixed price to the Government of Jersey, where design, construction, cost and programme risks rest with the developer and not the Government of Jersey. 

The Agreement provides a turnkey package which includes FF&E (furniture, fixtures and equipment) and places obligations on the developer to tender the individual packages and wherever possible use local suppliers. 

As the price to the Government of Jersey is fixed, the developers’ costs are commercially sensitive and under the terms of the Agreement are to be kept confidential by both parties.  

The developers’ procurement process and tender returns are independently assessed and evaluated on behalf of the Government of Jersey to ensure products meet the required specification (including sustainability), are sourced where possible through local suppliers and that the costs are competitive / represent good value for money.

Therefore, the requested information is exempt under Article 33(b) (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Article 33 is a qualified exemption; therefore, a public interest test has been applied and is shown at the end of this response.

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

The release of the furnishing costs could potentially disadvantage the developer and the Government of Jersey’s ability to retain commercial advantage in any future tender process.  

This could also result in the Government of Jersey’s inability to secure best value for the taxpayer, and this will likely prejudice the Government as its bargaining power decreases. 

It is in the public interest to be made aware of any furnishing costs in relation to the new Government building.  However, it is considered that the likely prejudices to the developer, the Government and the taxpayer should this information be released outweigh the argument that the release is in the public interest.​