Births in Jersey during 2024 (2) (FOI)Births in Jersey during 2024 (2) (FOI)
Produced by the Freedom of Information officeAuthored by Government of Jersey and published on
07 January 2025.Prepared internally, no external costs.
Request
What was the number of births in Jersey in 2024 - that is the figure equivalent to the 2023 figure of 795.
Response
The full information for 2024 is not complete as some births may not yet be registered. The information will be included in the Superintendent registrar’s annual statement which will be published here: Annual Statements. This is expected to be published by 31st March 2024. Therefore Article 36 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.
Articles Applied
Article 36 - Information intended for future publication
(1) Information is qualified exempt information if, at the time when the request for the
information is made, the information is being held by a public authority with a view to its
being published within 12 weeks of the date of the request.
(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground
must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant –
(a) of the date when the information will be published;
(b) of the manner in which it will be published; and
(c) by whom it will be published.
(3) In this Article, “published” means published –
(a) by a public authority; or
(b) by any other person.
Public Interest Test
Article 36 is a qualified exemption, which means that a public interest test has to be undertaken to examine the circumstances of the case and decide whether, on balance, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. As this information may be inaccurate if released now, as some births may not yet have been registered, releasing the information would not be in the public interest. It is intended to publish the information on the Government of Jersey website within 12 weeks. All registrations will then have taken place and accurate information will be released.
Internal Review Request
I wish to appeal against this decision.
While I accept that the refusal is within the letter of Article 36 it cannot be justified to withhold important statistics that are readily available and significant for public policy reasons. An FoI response on 13 November gave figures for the first nine months of 2024. It seems that one can request figures for any period as long as it is not done in the first three months of the year.
Accordingly, next week I will ask for the number of births in the period from 1 October 2024 to 3 January 2025 from which I will estimate births from 1 to 3 January and then publish a 2024 figure in a paper I am preparing. It would be far more sensible to give the information I have requested as it is readily available.
Internal Review response
The internal review panel reviewed this request and found that the initial response to withhold the information under Article 36 was justified, particularly as the information may not have been accurate due to the 21-day registration period.
The review panel did however note that this information has now been collated and will therefore be accurate. The information has been included in the Superintendent registrar’s annual statement which is published here: Annual Statements. Therefore, as this information is accessible by other means, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.
Article 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.