Request
For each Ministerial department, please kindly provide a list of all modifications made to Ministerial offices and those of senior civil servants / advisors and the cost of each since the most recent cohort of elected representatives took office in 2014.
‘Modifications’ pertain to everything purchased using States money from décor arrangements such as tables, desks, picture frames, chairs, coffee machines, TVs, new computers, etc. to larger scale adjustments such as repainting, new bathrooms, and so on.
For each, please provide a description of the item / modification in question (please provide the make and model where possible / details like ‘leather office chair’ rather than just ‘chair’), who it was for (if there is a personal information exemption for civil servants, please just provide this for the ministers), the date, and the cost.
Response
Where readily available the information requested is provided in the table below.
For Jersey Property Holdings (JPH) (the section which carries out building maintenance for States departments) the information could not be provided within the time permitted under the Regulations of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.
“Senior civil servants” has been interpreted to mean Chief Officers for the purpose of this answer.
The cost of replacement PCs has been excluded. There is a rolling replacement programme of technology refresh across the States.
Chief Minister's Department | 1 December 2014 | £7,977 | Chief Ministers Office (mobile unit so can be used Corporately) | HD LED TV, trolley and mobile video conferencing unit with licences |
| 1 February 2017 | £13,282 | Council of Ministers Meeting Room (Ministerial team and Corporate meetings) | Swapped aging projectors for flat panel touch sensitive TVs and speakers and installed updated dedicated video conferencing facilities with licences |
| Community and Constitutional Affairs | No direct costs but work may have been carried out by JPH |
| Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture | No direct costs but work may have been carried out by JPH |
Education | 27 August 2014 | £596 | Minister | Painting of Room |
| 7 January 2015 | £676 | Minister | Decoration of Ministers Office |
| 5 May 2017 | £2,104 | Minister | Table, 6 chairs and storage |
| 15 January 2015 | £100 | Minister | Network cabling in room to move socket |
| Environment | No direct costs but work may have been carried out by JPH |
External Relations | 1 December 2016 | £457 | Minister | Ceremonial flag, flag pole and stand (transportable and can be used for inbound official events) |
| December 2016 / January 2017 | £159 | Minister | Hanging pictures and making good walls |
Health and Social Services | 21 January 2015 | £17 | Ministerial Team, Chief Officer and corporate meetings | Equipment for Corporate Meeting Room - MS Mobile Mouse 3500 |
| 6 March 2015 | £3,099 | Ministerial Team, Chief Officer and corporate meetings | SmartBoard Touch Screen - Corporate Meeting Room - E70 (70") LCD |
| 6 March 2015 | £390 | Ministerial Team, Chief Officer and corporate meetings | Wi-fi for Smart Board - Corporate Meeting Room - Awind WiPG 1000 WePresent |
| 13 July 2015 | £69 | Ministerial Team, Chief Officer and corporate meetings | AppleTV - Corporate Meeting Room |
| 3 March 2015 | £390 | Ministerial Team, Chief Officer and corporate meetings | Wireless presentation gateway - Corporate Meeting Room |
| 15 December 2016 | £617 | Ministerial Team, Chief Officer and corporate meetings | Purchase of Mitel Conference Telephone - Corporate Meeting Room |
| 6 March 2015 | £799 | Ministerial Team, Chief Officer and corporate meetings | Motorised Stand - part of Smart Board Equipment - Corporate Meeting Room |
| 6 March 2015 | £125 | Ministerial Team, Chief Officer and corporate meetings | Sound bar for Smart Board Equipment package - Corporate Meeting Room |
| Infrastructure | No direct costs but work may have been carried out by JPH |
Social Security | 23 November 2014 | £1,440 | Chief Officer | Move doors and stud-work to reduce size of Chief Officer office and create meeting room for use by whole department |
| 18 December 2014 | £350 | Minister | (Estimated cost) As part of wider changes to the department's offices the Minister's office was moved, and the new office was repainted. The amount included is an estimate of the costs attributable specifically to this work |
| Treasury and Resources | 1 December 2014 | £310 | Minister | Decoration to walls and woodwork |
For some departments the work to obtain the detailed breakdown requested of information could only be achieved by examining individual invoices and would require more than the 12.5 hours of work laid down by the legislation.
Article 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.
(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.
Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
