Ministers warn of high cost of Freedom law
Saturday 30th April 2011, 2:58PM BST.
MINISTERS say that the cost of a law fighting government secrecy will run into many millions of pounds.
In the run-up to Tuesday’s debate on the new Freedom of Information Law, the Council of Ministers has published a report putting the cost of implementing the legislation at a minimum of £5.6m, followed by running costs of £1.3m per year.
They say that while they ‘fully support the principles of openness, transparency and access to information’, there is no provision for the spending in the Draft Business Plan setting out proposals for spending in 2012.
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has any one of the public , stumbled on the costs for similar services elsewhere , i.e isle of white or isle of man .
the admin cost of this rock in the ocean is a joke.
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if we had a freedom of information act the m the puiblic would not be kept in dark with issues like , how much the 1k 1′s cost us.
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Ah the old guilt trip ploy.. nice.
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Well they would that should be no suprise all there secrets exposed and how much people are getting paid etc etc
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Ha, ha. They don’t need to tell us, we’ve all known for years just how committed the States
to open government. The examples of the number of times, just in the last year, when they’ve wriggled and obstructed and lied would more than fill a page – and that’s with very, very small print. The fact is with their level of incompetence their bosses, the civil??? servants, have told them to spin this yarn as above all we, the public, must not be told the truth. After all, what’s the problem? It will be the same as with every other shameful episode, the public will jump up and down for a few days and then, when nothing is done about it, all will go quiet again and “normal service” will be resumed.
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Is this because so many people will be applying for information?
This is the latest excuse the others are “we don’t need a freedom of information law”, “there is guidance already in place”, “we will tell you everything you need to know”, “the information will be used by the wrong people”, “it is not a top priority at the moment”.
Just copy and paste the same legislation from elsewhere and train up an existing department to do the extra duty. The Data protection people should be good at this. Surely the extra staff would not amount to millions a year.
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This legislation is necessary but it is to little to late but without it the establishment will continue at the trough.
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Hmmm, wasn’t the information regarding school exam results reported as coming from a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request?
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It really is simple.DO NOT let it cost that much….all this is saying apart from posturing..is we can not control the cost of doing simple things……we have allowed the civil service to inflate the cost of doing ANYTHING to ridiculous levels..we need politicians who can crack the whip….let’s be havin ya.
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To mis-quote Chamfort.
“If it were not for the government, we should have nothing to laugh at in Jersey.”
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The FOIA would make these fool’s accountable for their actions as they could not deny issues with such ease.
Therefore, it’s no surprise they don’t want it in but many third world countries can afford the FOIA !!
Also, did they just pluck a figure out of the air, or they going to tell us who and how they got to this ?
Time consuming requests for information is chargeable under the local FOIA rules, so it may be a cost of GBP1.3m per year, but what would be the net cost (ie, after payment for large requests)
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This is some kind of joke no?
Who actually regulates this lot independently and without conflict of interest exactly? Nobody over here who is doing it honestly that is for sure. Why do you lot think Stuart Syvret was trying to get a fair, transparent and honest way enforced over here?
Ok, yes some of his methods did leave a lot to be desired, but then again you have to ask yourself how you would appear to others if you were trying to deal with a bunch like that.. They play shop all the time but everything has CONFLICT OF INTEREST written over it all the time.
Read the writing on the wall the game is up, stop messing us around the biggest risk our Island has its its own Government, you need some real people with life experience. I would say only a handful of that lot have the intelligence and humility to back up the qualifications and social circles they happen to be very open about. Its just a shame that they can’t respect what it means to have that honor and they abuse it.
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God forbid we are ever involved in Freeedom legislation, dont forget BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.
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what price fairness, equality & justice?
come off it. too high a price to pay for their careers?
i will be looking at who votes against the freedom of information law, i suggest we all do, and then express your disgust to them personally
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High cost to whom? Let the cat out of the bag and Ministers heads will roll.
What are the Ministers hidding? It must be huge.
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MINISTERS say that the cost of a law fighting government secrecy will run into many millions of pounds (£5.6m to be exact and £1.3m p.a. thereon) and it is to be ‘debated’ tomorrow. They also say they ‘fully support the principles of openness, transparency and access to information’, yet there is no provision in the Draft Business Plan for such spending proposals in 2012 (so the money will have to be found from somewhere…hmmm, take it from the most needy of our population perhaps!?). With this in mind can anyone remind me, as a taxpayer, when we were kindly notified of the £65k cost for a report about the economic effect of super-rich immigrants who come to live in Jersey under the 1(1)k rules and why Eddie Noel (our Assistant Treasury Minister no less!) is fighting the said reports publication? Would the JEP also explain why the option to add a comment was not present under the story?
It is for these reasons that the people of Jersey should push for such legislation to be passed. In my mind there is more of a problem with those who do not act upon breaches of legislation when they are reported that are the bigger problem here…not the legislation itself! What a perfect example of why the law fighting government secrecy is required.
Now…who’s up for debating this one with me????
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£5.6m? About what they lost on the incinerator, no?
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I find it odious and immoral that Taxpayers money is spent hiding the truth from the electorate….this Hopeless Govt has forgotten what they are there for…TO REPRESENT US..not see us as a problem to be managed…they are reneging on the deal….what do you call it when you pay someone well and they do not deliver…and should you be able to be rid of such…I see no difference between dispensing with a faulty tradesman,merchant or retailer who does not deliver than politicians who I would say have a greater responsibility to discharge duties on our behalf………
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Of course the The so called “Council of Ministers (Liars)” would say that it would cost millions! They have a lot to hide and thus lose.
They will find ANY excuse nit to implemnt openness and transparency as the public would see the true extent of their incompetent decision making.
They should be held accountable. FULL STOP.
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This is a load of tripe…how can it cost so much for honesty? Obviously the govt want to hide a multitude of sins and spending or it would not come at such a cost! If third world countries can afford FOIA then im pretty sure a financially run island can afford it!! Absolutley shocking!
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NO!
This would actually save a lot of money. If the states were more accountable for all decisions and the public could scrutinise all individual items of expenditure over a certain amount States waste would be greatly reduced.
We have however little chance of ever getting a FOI – Education doesn’t even want to publish exam results!
As for cost, much of the information can surely just be made available online?
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1.3 million to save 100millions is a good deal.
And when we can finally see the truth, that million is more likely to be £50 000.
I don’t see how photocopying, scanning and forwarding documents is going to be more expensive than having 15 antivirus, password managers , multiple safes and god knows what they use to keep it secret ….
I ll be curious to know what 0/10 brings to our plates as obviously we are all paying GST to compensate for these companies.
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How did they come up with that ridiculous costing figure?
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Flymo refers to the Exam Results. This is actually a clear example of one of the problems with Freedom of Information – people are free to completely misinterpret the information and repeat their misinterpretation as fact. The listener to that “fact” doesn’t hear or read or understand the context of the Information, which therefore becomes misinformation.
Even Ben Queree, a paid, professional reporter, highlighted the comparisons between Jersey schools this week in the JEP without highlighting in the same way the essential point that Jersey schools have more selective bias in them than in the UK, so a comparison between the Jersey “state” schools and those in the UK is, well, just wrong. Clearly, and undeniably, wrong.
We may gain the right to Information, but where is the responsibility to use, report or comment on such information in context and fairly?
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23
http://www.gov.je/Government/Pages/StatesReports.aspx?ReportID=576
Blair..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/opensecrets/2010/09/why_tony_blair_thinks_he_was_a.html
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Hello
Interesting that Tony Blair hated the FOI act as it meant we found out who was funding the labour Party and then were able to see there may have been favours granted. I am not sure it is an argument against FOI unless you want to hide who is funding you.
The live link licences are a very large part of the cost and why so many?
There are also some very highly paid posts and lots of new technology.
How many staff and on how much ?
Please if anyone wants to see how the States spend money like water click the link under Hello and 23.
I see both those links as very much an argument for freedom of information.
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