Copies of any emails from Deputy Lyndon Farnham to Deputy Kirsten Morel

​Request ​829127457

Please provide copies of any emails from Deputy Lyndon Farnham to Deputy Kirsten Morel containing the word 'DFDS' between 15th March 2026 and 10th April 2026

Response

Searches were conducted as requested, and the resulting correspondence is attached.

Freedom of Information response 829127457 - Redacted Final.pdf​

The correspondence has been redacted in accordance with Article 25 – Personal Information (shown in blue).

Additional redactions have been applied in accordance with Article 33 – Commercially Sensitive and Article 35 (Policy Under development) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. These are shown in green

Articles applied

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 2018.

(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 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

Article 33(b) of the Freedom of Information Law allows an authority to refuse a request for information where its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Whilst it is accepted that the public may have an interest in the requested information, it is considered that releasing this information could affect the commercial interests of the suppliers and the Government of Jersey.

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 be in a position to provide advice to Ministers, Ministers and officials need a safe space in which such free and frank discussions over potential policy can take place.
• Whilst the development of policy exemption is a class-based exemption, the need for this safe space is considered at its greatest during the live stages of a policy.
• It is considered that the release of this correspondence may impact the general public and lead to misinterpretation and misinformed debate. This would affect the ability of officials to consider and develop policy away from external pressures, and to advise Ministers appropriately.
• As such a disclosure of this type of information at this stage in proceedings would be likely to hamper and harm the policy–making process, not only in relation to this subject area, but potentially in respect of future policy development across a wider departmental business.

Considering all relevant matters including but not limited to the above, while transparency is important, the public interest in disclosure of this policy development documentation must be weighed against potential harm caused by the detrimental impact on policy development processes and decision-making. These matters can be examined by established political processes, including formal Scrutiny and questioning in the States Assembly.

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 public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the benefits disclosing the information.​