THE government is considering an overhaul of the Freedom of Information Act after it revealed that over £1 million is spent each year administering the law.
Deputy Chief Minister Tom Binet told the JEP that he would like to see a limit placed on the number of FoI requests made by Islanders per year to prevent resources being spent on vexatious submissions by what he described as “a small number of people”.
“There are some people, perhaps one or two people, who sit at their desks and send out FoI requests all day. I am not convinced that dealing with them is a good use of taxpayer’s money,” he told the JEP, adding that the limit would not apply to members of the media.
In a statement issued this week, the government said that more than 1,000 requests for information were made by members of the public in 2024 at a cost of more £1 million a year.
When the law was introduced, it was estimated that there would be around 60 submissions per year, the statement added.
“Where does it stop? Do we go to 2,000 a year? 5,000?” Deputy Binet asked.
He said that rather than put in FoI requests, Islanders “should just pick up the phone” and ask government departments for the information they needed.
He added that the government was committed to being open and accountable with the public, and that this should reduce the need for freedom-of-information requests.
His comments come just a day after the government confirmed that it had discussed the extension of the law to arm’s-length organisations such as Ports of Jersey and the Jersey Financial Services Commission in October following a JEP campaign that began last year.
This newspaper reported in 2024 that ten years since the States committed to including ALOs in the law’s remit following a proposition by Deputy Carolyn Labey in 2014, it still had not done so.
“When it comes to extending the FoI Law to arm’s-length bodies, we also have to ensure it doesn’t undermine their ability to fulfil their role, particularly for regulators and those competing with private companies in a commercial environment,” Deputy Binet said. “Ministers will receive an update report in the next two months and will then decide how and when to extend the law to the arm’s length bodies.”
In an interview with the JEP last year, External Relations Minister Ian Gorst said that he would not oppose the addition of ALOs, such as the JFSC, to the FoI Act, but said that excluding information deemed commercially sensitive would need to be an absolute rather than a qualified exemption, meaning that it would not be subject to a public-interest test.
