Costings of the Tynwald ceremony

Summary

The requester asked for fully audited yearly costs of the Tynwald Day Ceremony for the past 10 years, but the Office of the Clerk of Tynwald refused to disclose the information immediately under a qualified exemption, committing instead to publish the data on their website by September 2022.

Key Facts

• The Office of the Clerk of Tynwald does not hold 'fully audited' records as audits are part of the wider Isle of Man Government financial accounts.
• A qualified exemption under section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act was applied because the information is held for future publication.
• The authority committed to publishing income and expenditure data for Tynwald Day annually starting with this request.
• Full costs for Tynwald Day 2022 could not be provided at the time of response due to outstanding invoices.
• The Office does not hold cost information for other Government Departments or organisations supporting the event.

Data Disclosed

• 2525841
• 2022-07-07
• 2022-08-02
• Friday 9th September 2022
• past 10 years
• section 41
• Freedom of Information Act 2015

Exemptions Cited

• Section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act (Information held with a view to publication)

Original Request

Please provide a fully audited yearly cost of the Tynwald Day Ceremony for the past 10 years

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Freedom of Information Co-Ordinator Office of the Clerk of Tynwald Legislative Buildings Douglas Isle of Man IM1 3PW Telephone: 01624 685500

Our ref: 2525841 02 August 2022

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 7th July 2022. Your request "Please provide a fully audited yearly cost of the Tynwald Day Ceremony for the past 10 years" Our response In the sense that ‘fully audited’ means financial records that have been officially examined by an outside person or body, the Office of the Clerk of Tynwald does not hold copies of fully audited yearly costs for any of its budget areas, including Tynwald Day, as the audit is undertaken as part of the Isle of Man Government financial accounts – https://www.gov.im/categories/tax-vat-and-your-money/government-accounts/ However, the Office manages and administers its budget and finances in compliance with Isle of Man Government’s Financial Regulations and does hold financial records in respect of its expenditure and income, including Tynwald Day and its associated activities and events. The Office already publishes some financial information on its website relating to external activities, and prompted by your request the Office will adopt the position of publishing the income and expenditure related to Tynwald Day and associated events annually. We are therefore applying a qualified exemption to request 2525841 under section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act as the information is held with a view to being published at a future date and it is reasonable that the information be withheld from disclosure until that time.

Public Interest Test As section 41 is a qualified exemption, it is subject to a public interest test.

Factors in favour of disclosure • Large financial expenditure • Prominent public event • Events linked to celebrating our National Day

Factors in favour of withholding at this time • To ensure that internal records are suitable for publication • Consolidation of data sources to provide transparency and maintain commercial confidentiality • We are unable to provide full costs for Tynwald Day 2022 as we have yet to receive all invoices • Time to collate historic figures to provide a single, useful dataset.
In taking these factors into account the Office of the Clerk of Tynwald determined that the factors in favour of maintaining the exemption outweigh the factors in favour of disclosing the information at this time. Our commitment The information we commit to publishing will be the financial information that the Office of the Clerk of Tynwald1 holds relating to Tynwald Day and associated events published under the following headings: • Ceremonial and Infrastructure • Audio visual provision • Military Support • Enhancements • Official Guests • The President’s Dinner • The Tynwald Garden Party In order that we can ensure that the information you have requested is accurate and not misleading, we will publish all information on the Tynwald website no later than Friday 9th September 2022. Your right to request a review If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

1 Other Government Departments and organisations support Tynwald Day. The Office does not hold information regarding the costings for these departments or organisations.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Please quote the reference number 2525841 in any future communications. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date. Yours sincerely ###

FOI Co-Ordinator foi@tynwald.org.im