Misuse of drugs advisory councils minutes (FOI)

Request

I would like the minutes of every meeting but especially the misuse of drugs advisory councils minutes since (name redacted) became its chairman specifically where cannabis and cannabis based products were discussed.

Response

The Misuse of Drugs Advisory Council (MDAC) minutes relating to Cannabis and Cannabis based products are provided with the exception of the 12 December 2017 meeting. The minutes of 12 December will not be provided at this time as they have not yet been approved by the meeting and the MDAC considers that the information is exempt under Article 35 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 (the FOI Law).

We have considered the public interest and believe that on balance, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. It is acknowledged that the public has an interest in the decisions made relating to Cannabis, however, as an advisory council to Government, it is important that MDAC members feel able to openly discuss contentious issues in a safe space without fear of excessive scrutiny or reprisal.

The documents provided below have been redacted to remove names of meeting attendees in order to protect the identity of individuals under Article 25 of the FOI Law.

Redacted Misuse of Drugs Advisory Council 2016 to 2017 Minutes

It is not possible to provide copies of all minutes of every meeting within the cost limit specified by the FOI Law.

Exemptions 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 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 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

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.

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.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.