Freedom of
Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014
Made 25th November 2014
Coming into force in
accordance with Regulation 5
THE STATES, in pursuance of Articles 16 and 53 of the Freedom of Information
(Jersey) Law 2011[1], have made the following Regulations –
1 Interpretation
In these Regulations –
“Law” means the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011[2];
“specified amount” means –
(a) in
respect of a request to a scheduled public authority specified in any of
paragraphs 1 to 7 of Schedule 1 to the Law, £500; or
(b) in respect of a request to a parish on or after 1st
September 2015, £200.
2 Estimating
the cost of supplying information
(1) For
the purposes of Article 16(1) of the Law, if the estimated cost of
supplying information would exceed the specified amount, as determined in accordance
with this Regulation and, if applicable Regulation 3, a scheduled public
authority may refuse to supply that information.
(2) In making
such a determination, the scheduled public authority shall take into account
only the costs attributable to the time which it reasonably expects to be spent
by a person undertaking any of the activities described in paragraph (3)
on the scheduled public authority’s behalf.
(3) Those
activities are –
(a) determining whether the scheduled public authority holds the
information;
(b) locating the information, or a document which may contain
the information;
(c) retrieving the information, or a document which may contain
the information; and
(d) extracting the information from a document containing it.
(4) The
costs referred to in paragraph (2) are to be estimated at a rate of
£40 per person per hour.
3 Estimating
the cost of complying with a request – aggregation of related
requests
(1) In the
circumstances specified in paragraph (2), where 2 or more requests for
information are made to a scheduled public authority by –
(a) one person; or
(b) different persons who appear to the scheduled public
authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign,
the estimated cost
of complying with any of the requests as determined in accordance with Regulation 2
is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them.
(2) Those
circumstances are that –
(a) the 2 or more requests referred to in paragraph (1)
relate, to any extent, to the same or similar information; and
(b) those requests are received by the scheduled public authority
within any period of 60 consecutive working days or such longer period as is
reasonable in all the circumstances of the case.
(3) In
this Regulation “working day” means a day other than –
(a) a Saturday, a Sunday, Christmas Day, or Good Friday; or
(b) a
day that is a bank holiday or a public holiday under the Public Holidays and
Bank Holidays (Jersey) Law 1951[3].
4 Supply
of information where estimated costs exceed the specified amount
(1) If
a scheduled public authority estimates that the cost of supplying information
will exceed the specified amount as determined in accordance with Regulation 2
and, if applicable, Regulation 3, the scheduled public authority may, in
accordance with Article 16(2) of the Law, supply the information requested
on payment to it of a fee determined in the manner set out in this Regulation.
(2) That
fee shall be of such amount as the scheduled public authority may determine is
appropriate in all the circumstances of the case, such amount not exceeding the
total of –
(a) the costs which the scheduled public authority may take into
account in accordance with Regulation 2 (disregarding any costs it may
take into account solely by virtue of Regulation 3), in relation to that
request; and
(b) the costs the scheduled public authority reasonably expects
to incur in –
(i) informing the person making the request whether it holds the
information, and
(ii) communicating the information to the person making the
request.
(3) Costs
which may be taken into account by a public authority for the purposes of paragraph (2)(b) include, but are not limited to, the costs of –
(a) reproducing any document containing the information; and
(b) postage and other forms of transmitting the information.
(4) For
the purposes of paragraph (2)(b), to the extent
that such costs are attributable to a person undertaking activities on the
scheduled authority’s behalf, those costs are to be estimated at a rate
of £40 per person per hour.
5 Citation
and commencement
These Regulations may be cited as the Freedom of Information (Costs)
(Jersey) Regulations 2014 and shall come into force on the same date the
Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011[4] comes into force.
L.-M. HART
Deputy Greffier of the States