Summary/Decision
1. On 16 January 2024, the Complainant requested certain information from Infrastructure and Environment (the SPA) about steps taken by the Government of Jersey (GoJ) to deal with land within and around Jersey Airport that had been contaminated with certain PFAS chemicals. Specifically, the Complainant sought information of relevant discussions, copies of Ministerial Decisions, copies of reports and identification of reports which had been submitted to the Law Officers’ Department for advice (the Request).
2. The SPA wrote to the Complainant on 23 February 2024 (the Initial Response) stating that all of the information sought in the Request was being withheld (the Withheld Information), and citing the exemptions at Art.10, 16, 23, 31, 32 and 35 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 (the FOI Law) as variously applicable to various parts of the Complainant’s Request. The Complainant did not agree with the Response and requested an internal review on 11 March 2024 (the First IR Request).
3.Rather than respond to the First IR Request, the SPA issued a revised response on 23 April 2024 (the Revised Response) to which the Complainant raised their second request for an internal review (the Second IR Request) on 30 May 2024.
4. The SPA issued its response to the Second IR Request on 26 July 2024 (the Internal Review Response) and upheld the previous decision that had been made.
5. The Complainant did not agree with the outcome of the Internal Review and issued an appeal to the Information Commissioner (the Commissioner) on 28 July 2024 (the Appeal).
6. The Commissioner’s decision is that the appeal is rejected. There are no further steps the SPA needs to take in relation to this matter.