Public consultation on Legalisation and Regulation of Non-Medical Cannabis

​​Request 736928500​

I am submitting a request under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 regarding the public consultation titled “Legalisation and Regulation of Non-Medical Cannabis”, which ran from 30 May 2025 to 11 July 2025.

Please provide the following information:

1. The total number of responses submitted to the consultation.

2. A breakdown of how many responses were received from:

o Individual members of the public

o Organisations, stakeholders, or interest groups (if recorded)

3. For each question in the consultation that involved selectable or multiple-choice options, please provide:

o The number of respondents who selected each individual option

o A summary of any free-text or open-ended responses, if available

4. Will a full summary report of the consultation results be published? If so, please confirm the expected publication date.

I am requesting this information in digital format via email. Please let me know if any part of this request requires clarification.

Response

The consultation response data are currently being reviewed for data quality assurance. It is envisaged that this process will be completed and the survey feedback report will be published to www.gov.je​ before the end of October 2025. Therefore, Article 36 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Producing a summary of free-text or open-ended responses to questions posed in the consultation would require manual review and extraction, as well as manipulation and creation of records from the consultation submissions; Scheduled Public Authorities are not obliged to create or manipulate data for the purpose of responding to Freedom of Information requests.

Article 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 and, as such, Health and Care Jersey (HCJ) has conducted a prejudice test as required by law. 

HCJ has assessed whether, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in supplying the information is outweighed by the prejudice that would likely result by doing so. 

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure:

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

Public interest considerations favouring maintaining the exemption:  

• The consultation response data is currently under review, with publication to follow completion of data quality assurance. It is reasonable for a Scheduled Public Authority to publish reports in an orderly manner, following completion of appropriate internal processes. Publishing in advance, and in such close proximity to the expected publication date, would potentially undermine the orderly conduct of work, with resource implications disproportionate to the public benefit (when the public benefit of earlier publication under the Law would derive limited benefit).

​HCJ has concluded that, on balance, the public interest in disclosing this information ahead of the planned publication is outweighed by the potential prejudice that would likely result. ​​