Vehicle ownership and electric vehicle charging points (FOI)

Request

According to the Assembly, fossil-fuelled private cars should be phased out, with no new registration of this type of vehicles after 2025. It’s estimated that around a third of the UK’s 27 million households don’t have off-street parking, so many EV owners will need to use public charging points.

A

What is the estimated number of households for Jersey households with cars?

B

If no figures are available, when is it estimated they will be available?

C

Who is developing plans for implementing street charging points (such as lamp-post charging used in the UK) for users with street parking in St Helier?

D

How much will this cost and who will pay for it?

E

How much does a single public charging point cost to put in place? (as there are existing charging points in public car parks, this should be available).

F

Are there plans to retrofit chargers into multi-occupancy property parking?

Response

The mandate for the Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change was established as part of the Carbon Neutral Strategy (P.127/2019), agreed by the States Assembly in February 2020. Amongst other things and in reference to the recommendations report, it requires that:

• ministers respond to the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly and, where they do not accept a recommendation, they provide a reasoned justification; and

• an in-committee be held by the States Assembly to discuss the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly.

The recommendations were received by States Members and the Government of Jersey on 1 June 2021. These will be considered by States Members during an in-committee debate in late July, discussed with Ministers and then worked up into a proposed policy framework in the form of the Carbon Neutral Roadmap which will be published for public consultation in early 2022.

The Sustainability and Foresight team within Strategic Policy Planning and Performance are leading this piece of policy development work. The Carbon Neutral Roadmap will be debated by the States Assembly in Spring 2022.

The roadmap will outline the strategic decisions that need to be made to achieve the agreed date of carbon neutrality and the detail of early policies that will be implemented.

Amongst the recommendations that will be considered is the proposal to stop the new registration of petrol and diesel vehicles from 2025. Careful consideration will be given to this recommendation and the supporting policy measures that will be required to deliver it, including the development of the Island’s vehicle charging infrastructure and how this can be provided for those without off-road parking. Furthermore, the Sustainable Transport Policy’s implementation will ensure Island-wide improvement to public transport accessibility and frequency, creating viable alternatives to private car ownership.

A and B

The Sustainable Transport Policy (see link below) cites figures from the Jersey Opinion and Lifestyle Survey 2018 (see second link below) that 13% of households in Jersey do not own or have access to a car or van, therefore we can take it that 87% of households own or have access to a car or van.

Sustainable Transport Policy (gov.je)

R Opinions and Lifestyle Survey 2018 Report 20181205 SU.pdf (gov.je)

This report goes on to ask how many on-site parking spaces there are for the household’s sole use. 19% of households did not have a parking space for their sole use.

C

The development of charging infrastructure in the Island will be considered in the Carbon Neutral Roadmap being developed by Strategic Policy Planning and Performance department in close consultation with the Infrastructure, Housing and Environment department, the parishes, Jersey Electricity and other commercial charging providers

D

This is policy under development and therefore Article 35 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

E

Existing public charging provision is provided as a commercial venture by private business who have been given permission to install the equipment on Government of Jersey property, such as car parks. The Government of Jersey therefore does not hold information on the cost of the installation of a single public charging point, and therefore Article 10(1) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

F

Within the current development control process the transport planning team requests that developers provide charging facilities in new developments.

The provision of charging infrastructure in existing buildings will be considered in the Carbon Neutral Roadmap.

Articles applied

Article 10 - Obligation of scheduled public authority to confirm or deny holding information

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), if –

(a) a person makes a request for information to a scheduled public authority; and

(b) the authority does not hold the information,

it must inform the applicant accordingly.

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.

We are withholding the release of the information requested as it relates to the formulation and development of policy and procedure.

As Article 35 is a qualified exemption, a public interest test is required.

The following considerations were taken into account:

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure include:

• disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public, providing confirmation that the necessary discussions 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 include:

• 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;

• release of the information at this stage might 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.

Following assessment, it has been decided that on balance the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.