Staff members with secondary employment, private practices and business interests

​​​​Request 717201842

1) Since 1st January 2020, how many staff members across all departments have formally declared secondary employment, private practice, or any other business interests outside of their substantive roles? Please provide information on an annual basis.

2) Of those declarations:

• How many were from midwifery staff?

• How many were from medical staff (doctors)?

• How many were from allied health professionals (AHPs)?

• How many were from other staff groups (please specify if possible)?

Response

The Government of Jersey has had a corporate Conflicts of Interest policy in place since September 2023, as set out in the Public Finances Manual (linked below). Prior to this date a single repository of relevant information is not known to exist.

The policy requires that relevant conflicts of interest are raised, and that more senior officers (normally line managers) then make appropriate arrangements to manage those conflicts. There is an expectation that relevant “secondary employment, private practice, or any other business interests outside of their substantive roles” would be declared. However, it is possible that declarations may also be made in other ways (e.g. direct to managers). Declarations under the corporate policy are made for many other reasons than the subject of the question. To examine the corporate register of declarations to isolate the information necessary to answer the question is estimated to exceed the cost limit provisions set out in the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied. 

Notwithstanding the application of an exemption under Article 16, given that some declarations may be of a personal and sensitive nature, members of staff making those declarations are assured that any information provided will be treated in strictest confidence, with access to that data very tightly controlled. The important part of the process is that any interests declared are actively and appropriately managed. Therefore, if it could be extracted in a reasonable time, any data, including the number of declarations, that could potentially lead to the identification of individuals would be exempt under Articles 25 and 26 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. 

Public Finances Manual​

Articles applied

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations. 

(2) Despite paragraph (1), a scheduled public authority may still supply the information requested on payment to it of a fee determined by the authority in the manner prescribed by Regulations for the purposes of this Article.

(3) Regulations may provide that, in such circumstances as the Regulations prescribe, if two or more requests for information are made to a scheduled public authority –

(a) by one person; or

(b) by different persons who appear to the scheduled public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign, the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them.

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 2005.

(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.

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.​