Refurbishment of the public toilets at Bel Royal slipway and opposite Grand Hotel

​Request 740259478

I’m requesting information regarding the recent refurbishment of the public toilets at both locations of Bel Royal slipway ( burger shack) and opposite the Grand Hotel on the sea front.

A breakdown of costs at each place and final bill for each place.

Response

The final account submission values from the contractor for the requested sites are shown below.

Bel Royal Slipway- £260,518.21

West Park (opposite Grand Hotel) - £316,021.61

The breakdown of costs is exempt under Article 33(b) (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as the cost breakdown is commercially sensitive.

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

In applying this article, the following considerations were taken into account.  

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure   

• Disclosure of the cost breakdown would ensure the general public are informed about the expenditure by the Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) regarding the referenced sites.

• Disclosure of the information would support transparency, promote trust and accountability to the general public by showing openness.

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information    

• The disclosure of the cost breakdown could potentially disadvantage the contractor and the SPA’s ability to retain commercial advantage in any future tender process.

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

• The disclosure of the breakdown of expenditure and expenses may result in misinformed public debate and could jeopardise the business relationship between the SPA and the contractor as trust and confidentiality are key components of effective commercial relationships, and the disclosure of sensitive financial data could erode that trust.

Considering all considerations above, while transparency and accountability is important, the public interest in disclosure must be weighed against potential harm caused by prejudice of the commercial interests and the risks of misinformation.  

The SPA has concluded that, on balance, the risk of causing harm caused by prejudice of the commercial interests and or concerns or spreading misinformation, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the benefits disclosing the information.

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