Internal correspondence with the term "Angus Fire"

Request 762837695 

Dear Officer,
Under the Freedom of Information Act, please can I obtain copies of the following:
Copies of internal correspondence from the past five years between staff at the Infrastructure & Environment Authority that includes the key-word search term 'Angus Fire'.
Please can correspondence include, but not limited to, the following:
- Emails and any corresponding attachments
- Minutes of meeting
- Letters
Thank you

Response 

Copies of internal correspondence from the past five years between staff at the Infrastructure & Environment Authority that includes the key-word search term 'Angus Fire' have been withheld under Article 35 (Formulation and development of policies) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. 

However, further information can be found within the link below:

PFAS in Jersey 

Article 35 is a qualified exemption; therefore, a public interest test has been applied and is shown at the end of this response. 

The Scheduled Public Authority (SPA), does not hold the requested information such as minutes or letters, from the past 20 years, therefore, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies. 

Article applied 

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority" 

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority. 

Article 35 - Formulation and development of policies 

Information is qualified exempt information if it relates to the formulation or development of any proposed policy by a public authority. 

Public Interest test 

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

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure 

• Disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public, providing confirmation that the necessary discussions and testing have taken place. 

• Disclosure to the public fulfils an educative role about the early stages in policy development and illustrates how the department engages with parties for this purpose.  
  

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information 

• In order to best develop policy and provide advice to Ministers, officials need a safe space in which free and frank discussion can take place – discussion of how documentation is presented and provided is considered as integral to policy development as iterations of documents are demonstrative of the policy development process. 

• The need for this safe space is considered at its greatest during the live stages of a policy. 

• The release of the information without comprehensive interpretation alongside other data could impact the general public with misinterpretation and generate misinformed debate. This would affect the ability of officials to consider and develop policy away from external pressures, and to advise Ministers appropriately. 

• Premature disclosure of this information may limit the willingness of parties to provide their honest views and feedback. This would hamper and harm the policy–making process not only in relation to this subject area but in respect of future policy development across wider departmental business. 

Considering all considerations above, while transparency is important, the public interest in disclosure must be weighed against potential harm caused by distress or misinformation. 

It should also be noted that once a policy is formulated and published, the public interest in withholding information relating to its formulation is diminished, however, the use of the exemption can be supported if it preserves sufficient freedom during the policy formulation phase to explore options without that process being hampered by some expectation of future publication. 

The SPA has concluded that, on balance, the risk of causing significant concerns or spreading misinformation, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the benefits disclosing the information.​