Money paid into consultancy firms Medical Cannabis (FOI)

​​​​Request

How much public money has been paid to consultancy firms to conduct reports/ research into Jersey's medicial marijuana industry in each of the last five years, what are the name of these consultants and can you provide a detailed explanation of the work?

Response

Hanway Associates have been paid a total of £100,101.70 for strategy and policy development work. The second part of the requested information relating to the name of the consultants and details on the work carried out is exempt under Article 35 of the Freedom of Information Jersey (Law) 2011

Article applied

Article 35 - Formulation and development of policies

Information is qualified exempt information if it relates to the formulation or development of any proposed policy by a public authority.

Public Interest Test

Article 35 is a qualified exemption and, as such, the Government of Jersey has conducted a prejudice test as required by law.

The Government of Jersey has made an assessment on whether in all of the circumstances the public interest in disclosing the information would be outweighed by the prejudice that would be likely if it were disclosed.

Once a policy is formulated and published, the public interest in withholding information relating to its formulation is diminished. However, the use of the exemption can continue to be supported if it preserves sufficient freedom during the policy formulation phase to explore options without that process being hampered by some expectation of future publication.

• In applying this article, the following considerations were taken into account. 
• Public interest considerations favouring disclosure:
• disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public, providing confirmation that the necessary work is being undertaken
• disclosure to the public fulfils an educative role about the early stages in policy development and illustrates how the department engages with parties for this purpose.  

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information:

• ​in order to best develop policy, law and provide advice to Ministers, officials need a safe space in which free and frank discussion can take place – discussion of how documentation is presented and provided is considered as integral to policy and legal development as iterations of documents are demonstrative of the development process
• the need for this safe space is considered at its greatest during the live stages of development
• release of the information at this stage might generate misinformed debate. This would affect the ability of officials to consider and develop policy and law away from external pressures, and to advise Ministers appropriately
• premature disclosure of this information may limit the willingness of parties to provide their honest views and feedback. This would hamper and harm the policy–making process not only in relation to this subject area but in respect of future policy development across wider departmental business.

Therefore, having considered the public interest, the Government of Jersey has concluded that the public interest in disclosing this information is outweighed by the potential prejudice that would likely result. ​​