Officials say the release of the exchanges would harm Jersey’s ‘economic interests’ and ‘would not be in the public interest’.
The JEP requested to see emails sent between the Chief Minister, External Relations Minister and the Treasury Minister, as well the new States chief executive Charlie Parker and PR guru Stephen Hardwick, following the release of the confidential financial documents which showed that tech giants Apple used Jersey to avoid paying hundreds of billions of dollars in tax.
This newspaper’s freedom of information request asked for emails sent between 25 October and 10 November that contained the words ‘Paradise Papers’, ‘Appleby’ ‘or ‘leak’ in an effort to see how government formulated its response to news which put the Island in the national and international headlines.
The Paradise Papers are a set of 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to two German reporters. The reporters shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and details were made public on 5 November. Many of the documents originate from the offshore law firm Appleby.
In a statement, the FoI team said that all relevant emails had been examined and, following exemptions, the information left would be ‘valueless’. The statement adds: ‘The SPA [schedule public authority] considers that should some of the detail contained be released it would harm Jersey’s economic interests.
‘The publication by the media of the so-called Paradise Papers raised issues pertinent to policy development that was already under way and is ongoing. If information were to be disclosed, it is likely that it would have an effect on Jersey’s economic interests. It does not consider the public interest will be served by its disclosure and that maintaining the exemption far outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.’
The statement also says that following the publication of the Paradise Papers, ministers and senior members of staff discussed what impact it could have on Jersey. ‘Although there is a need for transparency, accountability, financial and good decision-making by public authorities this information relates to an ongoing situation,’ the statement adds. ‘The SPA needs the ability to consider and reconsider the assumptions and evaluations raised within the situation for the purpose of good government.
‘For this reason, on balance, it is considered it would not be in the public interest to disclose this information and accordingly the public authority maintains this exemption.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. Government needs the space in which to rigorously explore and develop the best policy possible.’
