Reasons for vaccination centre choice to stay secret

When the States announced that the Sir John Loveridge Hall would be taken out of action until May, it faced with criticism from sports about the choice, especially with the David Ferguson Hall just metres away and seemingly with the same advantages as the chosen venue, but with significantly less disruption.

The States swiftly released a statement to say that the Sir John Loveridge met all the key criteria and that other options, including the Dave Ferguson, had been assessed.

It made reference to Policy & Resources and Health & Social Care discussing an options appraisal.

This should show how all the different venues measured up against one another.

No-one has ever confirmed which site scored the most points, for instance.

The States has turned down a request from the Guernsey Press for that appraisal to be published.

A spokesman said that the document was written as a committee paper to brief P&R and HSC and support their discussions.

He said that internal advice documents, such as committee papers, are exempt from publication under the Code of Practice on Access to Public Information.

The code does allow for these types of exemptions to be overridden if it is considered in the public interest.

The Civil Contingencies Authority has also refused a request from the Guernsey Press for more information about the modelling scenarios which were relied on when deciding how regions were classified for different quarantine requirements, showing what would have happened to the risk levels if different infection levels were used instead.

A spokesperson said that releasing this information would damage the work of the authority. A request for an explanation of how has not been answered.

n Alternative arrangements have been arranged to accommodate the majority of sports and groups using facilities at schools and community centres.