Government of Jersey sports grants and leases (FOI)

​​​​Request

A

Please provide a breakdown of the amount of funds each sport has received from the Government of Jersey over the past five years.

B

Please also advise of any lease agreements, including the length of term and annual rents, between Government of Jersey entities and each sport (for example cricket at Grainville).

Response

A

The information requested is exempt under Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as the information is accessible on www.gov.je  within the previous Freedom of Information response linked below.

Grant funding for local sport (FOI)

B

The Government of Jersey currently has 25 lease agreements in place with sport clubs. 

The table below provides the annual total rent received by Government of Jersey per sport:

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​Please note that information regarding individual leases is exempt under Article 33(b) (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as the information is commercially sensitive. 

Please note that where there is only one lease in relation to a specific sport, we are unable to provide the requested information and it is not included in the spreadsheet. However, a total figure for these sports has been provided. 

Article 33(b) is a qualified exemption; therefore, a public interest test has been applied and is shown at the end of this response.

Articles applied

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.

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 is a qualified exemption, and a public interest test should be carried out by the Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) to determine whether the information should be released.

It is in the public interest to be made aware of lease agreements, the length of term and annual rents received by the SPA (the Government of Jersey (GOJ) in relation to Sport clubs.   

However, the release of the lease agreements, the length of term and annual rents could potentially disadvantage the tenant and the Government of Jersey’s ability to retain commercial advantage in any future rental negotiations regarding this site.  

Therefore, it is considered that the likely prejudice to the tenant and to the Government, should this information be released, outweighs the argument that the release is in the public interest.​