RNLI correspondence with Ports of Jersey (FOI)

Request 

Please supply copies of all correspondence received from and sent to Ports of Jersey, to Senator John Le Fondré, Deputy Kristina Moore, Senator Lyndon Farnham and Deputy Kirsten Morel, and Mark Chown – Chairman Ports of Jersey, including email addresses associated with the above, with the keywords "Sir David Calvert-Smith", "RNLI" "Ports of Jersey" within the timeframe available concerning the events before and after removal of the RNLI St Helier Lifeboat from service November 2017. This correspondence should cover the 12-month period to 31 July 2022 and should include any threat of legal action against the Chief Minister by Ports of Jersey, if such a threat was made. 

Response 

Searches were undertaken on the email accounts of Senator John Le Fondre, Deputy Kristina Moore, Senator Lyndon Farnham and Deputy Kirsten Morel for the period 31 July 2021 to 31 July 2022 with the keywords "Sir David Calvert-Smith", "RNLI" and "Ports of Jersey".  Relevant correspondence is attached. 

The attachments have been redacted in accordance with the Articles 25 (Personal Information) and Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. Duplicates, and correspondence that is entirely exempt, have been removed.

Email correspondence.pdf

Articles 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 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

Article 33 (b) is a prejudice-based exemption. That means that in order to engage this exemption there must be a likelihood that disclosure would cause prejudice to the interest that the exemption protects. In addition, this is a qualified exemption and consideration must be given to the public interest in maintaining the exemption.

The Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) considers that information redacted under Article 33(b) could prejudice the commercial interests of the Government of Jersey and/or third parties. There may be public interest in the commercial information however it was considered that this is outweighed by the potential for commercial and/or financial damage.