Art House Jersey funding bid (FOI)

​Original Request

Please could you release the funding bid made by Art House Jersey which was recently granted £160,000 (from a requested £191,000). This should include the bid document submitted and the scoring mechanism applied by the board that appraised this bid. Please can you release the funding bid that supported the successful application for £50,000 for evaluating the cultural provision in Jersey? This should include the scoring mechanism applied by the board that appraised this bid

Original Response

Art House Jersey submitted a business case to the Growth, Housing and Environment Department (GHE). That Department, in turn, submitted a request to the States Treasury and Exchequer Department (STE) for additional funding. This request was submitted in response to STE requiring all departments to notify it of urgent funding pressures for 2018 and 2019.

The business case provided by Art House Jersey is considered exempt from publication under Articles 26 (Information supplied in confidence) and 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

The request for funding submitted by GHE to STE contains confidential and commercially sensitive information so is considered exempt under Article 26 and Article 33.

The Investment Appraisal Board (which provides advice to the States Treasurer and Chief Executive Officer, who in turn advise the Minister for Treasury and Resources) does not use a scoring mechanism.

The recommendation to the Minister for Treasury and Resources to allocate £50,000 for evaluating the cultural provision in Jersey was not made in relation to a specific request.

Articles applied

Article 26      Information supplied in confidence

Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it was obtained by the scheduled public authority from another person (including another public authority); and

(b)       the disclosure of the information to the public by the scheduled public authority holding it would constitute a breach of confidence actionable by that or any other person

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).

Internal review request

Please could I ask for an internal review on the outcome of the request above.

It was denied on the basis of commercial interests and supplied in confidence.

The Art House Jersey bid is from a grant funded body and is not in essence commercial. In addition, the bids were submitted but I do not believe there was any stated or implied indication that the bids would not be published. Indeed an ALO should be capable of being fully transparent.

The internal business case for £50,000 appears to be entirely internal and so neither criteria apply to it.

The stated answer to my request for the scoring mechanisms for both is that the IAB did not do one. This is at odds with answers given by the Assistant Treasury Minister in the House when he referred to the Green Book criteria.

Internal review response

A senior member of staff has undertaken an independent review of the answer provided. 

The reviewer has concluded that the document requested has appropriately not been released and is exempt under Article 26 (Information supplied in confidence) and Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.