Breakdown of the expenditure paid to Liberty Bus by GoJ

​​​Request 735775765

Please can I be provided with a breakdown of the expenditure and expenses paid to Liberty Bus (Tower Transit) by the Government?

If possible, could expenditure be broken down by service, i.e. funds received by liberty bus from the government per passenger served, any government grants given to liberty bus (tower transit) since the service began, grants to purchase busses, subsidy of OAP services.

In essence, any and all data on monies that have been transferred, by any mechanism (bank transfer, cheque etc) from the Jersey Government to Liberty Bus (Tower Transit) 

Response

The requested information is exempt under Article 33(b) (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as a breakdown of the expenditure and expenses paid to Liberty Bus is considered commercially sensitive.

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

Article applied

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

In applying this article, the following considerations were taken into account.  

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure   

• Disclosure of the information would ensure the general public are informed about the expenditure and expenses paid to Liberty Bus by the Scheduled Public Authority (SPA).

• Disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public.

• Disclosure would also promote trust in the SPA by showing openness.

​Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information    

• The disclosure of the breakdown of expenditure and expenses could potentially disadvantage Liberty Bus and the SPA’s ability to retain commercial advantage in any future tender process.

• This could also result in the SPA’s inability to secure best value for the taxpayer and this will likely prejudice the SPA as its bargaining power decreases. 

• This could undermine the integrity of the recent tendering process with Liberty Bus, as the information could reveal pricing and service structures that were part of a competitive bid.

• The disclosure of the breakdown of expenditure and expenses may result in misinformed public debate, therefore, this could jeopardise the business relationship between the SPA and Liberty Bus which is essential for the successful delivery of services under the newly awarded contract. Trust and confidentiality are key components of effective commercial relationships, and disclosure of sensitive financial data could erode that trust.

All of the above points have been taken into consideration and while transparency and accountability is important, the public interest in disclosure must be weighed against potential harm caused by prejudice of the commercial interests and the risks of misinformation.  

The SPA has concluded that, on balance, the risk of causing harm caused by prejudice of the commercial interests and or concerns or spreading misinformation, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the benefits disclosing the information.​​​