Mutual Legal Assistance Policies and Procedurals Manual (FOI)

​Request

Please provide a copy of the Mutual Legal Assistance Policies and Procedurals Manual completed 25 May 2022, referred to on page 14 of The Government of Jersey’s Action Plan Progress Update on the National Strategy for Combatting Money Laundering, the Financing of Terrorism and the Financing of Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, published in September 2023. 

National Strategy for Combatting Money Laundering, the Financing of Terrorism and the Financing of Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (gov.je)

It is noted that the Council of Europe and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, amongst others, have published their manuals. 

Mutual Legal Assistance Manual (rm.coe.int)

Manual on Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition (unodc.org)​

​Response

The requested information is exempt under articles 27(1), 31 and 41 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. The Mutual legal assistance Policies and Procedures Manual is intended to advise its primary audience how best to investigate money laundering and financial crime. The more readily accessible such documentation becomes the more likely it is that criminals could use the knowledge to avoid detection and prosecution for relevant offences.

The manuals published by the Council of Europe and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime are manuals published by supra-national organisations as “how-to guides” to develop capacity in jurisdictions on how to conduct Mutual Legal Assistance. They do not represent similar documents to jurisdictional Mutual Legal Assistance Policies and Procedurals Manual. 

Articles applied

Article 27 - National security 

(1) Information which does not fall within Article 26A(1) is absolutely exempt information if exemption from the obligation to disclose it under this Law is required to safeguard national security. 

Article 31 - Advice by the Bailiff, Deputy Bailiff or a Law Officer 

Information is qualified exempt information if it is or relates to the provision of advice by the Bailiff, Deputy Bailiff or the Attorney General or the Solicitor General.

Public Interest Test  

Whilst it is recognised that the strong public interest in protecting Law Officers’ advice may still be overridden in some cases if there are particularly strong factors in favour of disclosure, conversely, disclosing the advice or whether advice was or will be sought could inhibit the Law Officers from (1) giving frank advice (2) inhibit government bodies in taking advice for fear of its publication; and (3) inhibit the full disclosure to the Law Officers of all material relevant to the advice being sought and therefore real weight ought to be afforded to this aspect of the Law Officers’ Convention.

Disclosing either the legal advice or the fact of whether specific advice was sought to the public is not a greater consideration of public interest that requires disclosure of the advice or confirmation of what advice was given. It does not outweigh the three principles set out above which require the long-standing Law Officer Convention to be maintained. Therefore, the balance is in favour of maintaining the exemption and it is not considered the public interest in disclosure outweighs the preservation of the Convention on this occasion.

Article 41 - International relations 

(1) Information is qualified exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice relations between Jersey and –

(a) the United Kingdom;

(b) a State other than Jersey;

(c) an international organization; or

(d) an international court.

(2) Information is qualified exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice –

(a) any Jersey interests abroad; or

(b) the promotion or protection by Jersey of any such interest.

(3) Information is also qualified exempt information if it is confidential information obtained from –

(a) a State other than Jersey;

(b) an international organization; or

(c) an international court.

(4) In this Article, information obtained from a State, organization or court is confidential while –

(a) the terms on which it was obtained require it to be held in confidence; or

(b) the circumstances in which it was obtained make it reasonable for the State, organization or court to expect that it will be so held.

(5) In this Article – 

“international court” means an international court that is not an international organization and that was established – 

(a) by a resolution of an international organization of which the United Kingdom is a member; or

(b) by an international agreement to which the United Kingdom was a party; 

“international organization” means an international organization whose members include any two or more States, or any organ of such an organization; 

“State” includes the government of a State and any organ of its government, and references to a State other than Jersey include references to a territory for whose external relations the United Kingdom is formally responsible.

Public Interest Test

The public interest in respect of Article 41 is weighted in favour of maintaining the exemption unless equally strong countervailing public interest arguments favour the disclosure of the information. It is recognised that there is a public interest in providing transparency about the island's network of international agreements. However, having considered the public interest, the Scheduled Public Authority concluded that the public interest in disclosing this information at this time is outweighed by the public interest considerations in withholding the information, in support of the Island's interests and to avoid any potential prejudice to the Island's relationship with the United Kingdom and other jurisdictions.​