Funds spent on advertising by Communications (FOI)

Request 685611732

1

How much money has the States spent supporting the media in the last 5 years by organisation?

2

How many loans to each of the media were given if any and have these been repaid?  

3

How much advertising money has been spent in the last 5 years with each media organisation and is that spend subject to regular review for value for money given the fact that most businesses are moving billing etc online and the States could do this also? 

4

How much money has been spent on Digital Jersey by the States in the last 5 years?

5

How much has the States communications department cost for the last 5 years including pensions and the manpower level for each year?

6

How much has been spent on outside advertising companies in Jersey for that period?

7

How much has been spent outside Jersey in that period?

8

How much has been spent on outside consultants in Jersey in that period for media related purposes and public information? 

9

How much has been spent on external consultants outside Jersey in the last 5 years for media and promotional and public relations?

Response

For the purpose of this FOI a “media organisation” is considered to be print, radio, TV, and outdoor media, and media organisations based on island.

1

The States of Jersey have not spent any monies supporting media organisations during the past 5 years.

2

No loans have given to media companies between 2020-2024.

3

The Government of Jersey is unable to disclose the requested information as it is exempt under Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. Therefore, Article 33 has been applied. 

All procurement is undertaken in line with the Public Finances Manual and the procurement framework. Value for Money must be identified during the procurement process. All billing is done online via the Ariba procurement system. 

4

Please refer to section 4.8 of the annual accounts for each year, this information is published every year. Article 23 of the Freedom of Information Law applies.

5

2021: 33 FTE (as per GP) at a cost of £2,396,713   

2022: 35 FTE (as per GP) at a cost of £2,440,259 

2023: 35 FTE (as per GP) at a cost of £2,692,445 

2024: cost of £2,970,469 due to a number of redundancy payments - 34 FTE core communications posts as per government plan, 17 FTE remaining after redundancies and service transfers

gov.je/government/freedomofinformation/pages/foi.aspx?ReportID=7326 ​

2025: forecasted cost of £1,635,407 and 17 FTE at year-end  

6

Fulfilling the request would require a significant amount of time and resources, as it would involve reviewing a large number of records and retrieving data from multiple sources. Based on our estimates, processing the request would exceed the cost/time limit set by the Law. Therefore, Article 16 of the Freedom of Information Law applies.

7 

Fulfilling the request would require a significant amount of time and resources, as it would involve reviewing a large number of records and retrieving data from multiple sources. Based on our estimates, processing your request would exceed the cost/time limit set by the Law. Therefore, Article 16 of the Freedom of Information Law applies.

8

£nil spent on outside consultants in Jersey for media related purposes and public information during the past 5 years. 

9

Information on location of suppliers is not routinely held, and a Scheduled Public Authority is not required to manipulate and create new data sets in response to a Freedom of Information request. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 therefore applies.

Articles 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.

​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. 

(2) Despite paragraph (1), a scheduled public authority may still supply the information requested on payment to it of a fee determined by the authority in the manner prescribed by Regulations for the purposes of this Article.

(3) Regulations may provide that, in such circumstances as the Regulations prescribe, if two or more requests for information are made to a scheduled public authority –

(a) by one person; or

(b) by different persons who appear to the scheduled public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign, the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them.

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 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

As Article 33 is a qualified exemption, we have conducted a public interest test to determine whether the public interest in disclosure outweighs the potential harm.

We recognise the importance of transparency and accountability in government decision-making. However, there is also a strong public interest in ensuring that commercially sensitive information is protected so that businesses can engage with the Government of Jersey without fear of unfair competitive disadvantage. In this case, we have concluded that the balance of the public interest lies in withholding the information.