Planning and building services enforcement function and process (FOI)

​Request

2014 Planning and Building Services Internal review of enforcement function:

A.

Who determined the terms of reference and directed the review and why?

B.

I require all minutes, submission, statements, notes from all stakeholders

C.

Investigation cases used in the review and findings within each case

D.

Each stakeholders submission in regards to ‘informing‘ the review

E.

Status and brief summaries of all enforcement notices and prosecutions actioned between 2008 and 2014 and the outcomes and context of each one; under whose authority within the department they were issued or directed.

Practice Note: 4 – Enforcement Process – December 2010:

F.

Who is responsible for Practice note 4 Enforcement process and who was involved in determining its legality?

G.

Who would be liable for prima facie breaches of the following laws that the department ensure compliance with? The policy states ‘’The Enforcement Section of the department is responsible for ensuring compliance with;  1) Human Rights (Jersey) Law 2000;  2)Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

H.

Why are there police codes detailed in Practice note 4, namely a) Police Procedures and Criminal Evidence (Jersey) Law 2002 (PPaCE0 b) Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Jersey) law 2005 (RIPA), when the department don’t have the authority to exercise any rights under those laws?

Response

A.

The enforcement review terms of reference were determined by the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of the Environment.

The review was led by the Deputy Chief Officer, with technical support from the Planning
Performance Manager.

The Deputy Chief Officer was asked to direct the review for the following reasons: 

• ​he possesses appropriate operational experience in the area of directing enforcement functions on behalf of the environment section of the department
  
• he had not had any previous involvement in the compliance functions of the Planning and Building section of the department

B.

As requested copies of the notes taken during meetings with stakeholders can be downloaded below.  Personal information has been redacted in accordance with Exemption 25(2) (a)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.  Also redacted is information that falls within the parameters of Exemption 26 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 which relates to information given in confidence.

Download meeting minutes 28 November 2013 (size 539KB)

Download meeting minutes 3 December 2013 (size 516KB)

Download meeting minutes 25 October 2013 (size 558KB)

Download meeting minutes 7 November 2013 (size 1.03MB)

C.

The review into enforcement functions was conducted with no reference to individual cases and all comments sought were on generalities. 

D.

Submissions from stakeholders are already provided under cover of item B above.

E.

We estimate that it will take in excess of 12.5 working hours to determine appropriate material and to locate, retrieve and extract the information in reference to this part of your request.  This item of your request, therefore, will not be processed further.

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.

The department does however keep a register of enforcement notices which is available for viewing at our South Hill offices between the hours of 8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.  You may wish to refine your request narrowing its scope by viewing the register and being more specific about which case(s) you are interested in.

F.

Practice note 4 was written by the former Director of Planning.  We have no record of who was involved in determining its legality at the time it was written.

G.

1) The Planning and Environment Minister

2) The Department of the Environment

H.

The inclusion of these laws in practice note 4 is a means to bring awareness of best practice in the field of investigation and evidence gathering. The inclusion does not confer any powers within those Laws to compliance officers unless those Laws specifically allow otherwise.
Compliance officers of the Planning and Building Services section have a duty to ensure that evidence for a criminal trial is collected and presented before the court in a prescribed manner

Whilst the PPACE Law 2003 applies to evidence gathering primarily for police officers, compliance officers within the Department of the Environment and, generally across the States of Jersey follow PPACE Law as best practice when gathering evidence of alleged criminal offences.

PPACE Law 2003 also applies to the questioning of potential offenders and witnesses and the collection and collation of documentary evidence in criminal proceedings.

Exemptions

Article 25 Personal Information

Information is absolutely exempt information if:

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

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.