British citizenship applications (FOI)

​Request

I would like to request the following information:

A
The number of people that applied to become a British citizen in Jersey from 2016 to date, broken down by calendar year (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020-to-date).

For each year could you please give me the breakdown of:

i) The number of naturalisation and registration requests

ii) The number of naturalisation and registration requests that failed

iii) The reasons why a request failed

iv) The number of citizenship tests taken and the number failed

B
The number of High Value Residents that applied to become a British citizen in Jersey from 2018 to date, broken down by calendar year ( 2018, 2019, and 2020-to-date)

C
Jersey's Royal Court conducts citizenship ceremonies, when an islander is granted British citizenship. Some governments, such as Malta, publish annual lists of such new citizens. Please could you provide me with an equivalent list of people who have been granted British citizenship in Jersey in the years 2018, 2019, and 2020-to-date?

Response

A i & iv

A ii & iii – Unlike the UK, Jersey does not accept naturalisation applications that do not meet the criteria and therefore we do not take the fee. This figure and what criteria has not been met is not recorded but is estimated at 2 or 3 a year.

B – This information is not recorded.

C – The information requested is exempt from release under Article 25 (Personal Information) and Article 26 (Information supplied in confidence) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Article applied

Article 25      Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2)     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 2018; and
(b)     its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

(3)     In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.

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.