Breakdown of the allocation of 6.7 million funding

WQ.1862025

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT

BY DEPUTY I. GARDINER OF ST. HELIER NORTH

QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 28th APRIL 2025 ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 6th MAY 2025

Question

"Further to Written Question 3012024 and the adoption of Increase in revenue expenditure for agriculture and fisheries' (P.742023), as amended, will the Minister provide a breakdown of the £6.7 million funding allocated in 2024 identifying –

1. each organisation that received funding;
2. for what purpose each such organisation received funding;
3. the amount spent, where and how it was spent; and
4. the outcomes of the funding provided;

and will he advise when a full report detailing the outcomes of the schemes will be published?"

Answer

(a)  and (b)

Grant funded organisation in 2024 (as indirect support to rural and marine sectors) :-

1. Jersey Island Genetics Ltd – a grant of £230k for the purpose of delivering herd management services, livestock recording services, milk recording, provision of liquid nitrogen, and enablement of productivity focused improvements to the genetics of the Island's cattle sector.
2. Jersey Product Promotion (2017) Ltd – a grant of £259k to provide management

services to the Genuine Jersey Products Association, and promotion of rural and marine products both locally and for export; an additional specific grant of £70k for the promotion of the Jersey Royal crop through media activity, undertaken on a match funded basis with industry.

Organisations (limited companies and sole traders) in receipt of direct support as part of the rural and marine support schemes (listed by scheme).

(c)

The Rural Support Scheme (RSS) and Marine Support Scheme (MSS) reward local businesses using a points based credit' system, which is used to calculate support payments based on economic, environmental and social inputs across pre-defined components which make up the credit matrix' on both schemes.

Credits were awarded to each business for a range of activities and converted to a grant payment at a standard rate (the 2024 grant rate was £12.50 per credit in both schemes). A number of items within the credit matrix are applicable to both sectors and there is an ongoing effort to ensure a consistent and joined up approach is maintained to closely align both schemes.

Reporting of expenditure on each component of the credit matrix has been summarised for all scheme applicants below rather than reported on an individual organisation basis (as this would involve several thousand data points).

The schemes are delivered in three tiers.

Tier 1

Tier 1 rewards accreditation under independently audited quality schemes and integrated business management plans – written statements for each organisation detailing specific arrangements made for each enterprise for each topic area covered. These management plans are subject to independent review as part of the audit process undertaken by the various accreditation bodies.

Credits are offered to organisations to promote working to the highest accredited standards and help offset the costs of gaining such recognition.

LEAF Marque Membership or accreditation and/or Organic certification are a requirement to access the RSS.

A fishing licence and vessel safety certificate or, for aquaculture businesses membership of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain (SAGB) , are required to access the MSS.

All other scheme elements are voluntary but rewarded in an effort to raise professional standards of the sectors and ultimately promote Jersey as a jurisdiction which operates to the highest independently verified standards.

RSS  MSS  COMBINED

Tier 1

Accreditation

LEAF MARQUE  £ 262,500.00   £ 262,500.00  ORGANIC  £ 71,250.00   £ -   £ 71,250.00  LICENCE/SAFETY CERT  £ 73,725.13   £ 73,725.13  SAGB  £ 3,000.00   £ 3,000.00  RED TRACTOR  £ 40,500.00   £ 40,500.00  SALSA  £ 6,000.00   £ -   £ 6,000.00  KIWA  £ 1,500.00   £ 1,500.00  GLOBAL GAP  £ 9,000.00   £ -   £ 9,000.00  BHS  £ 12,000.00   £ 12,000.00  BRC GLOBAL  £ 11,250.00   £ -   £ 11,250.00  

Integrated Management

Plans

SOIL  £ 32,500.00   £ 32,500.00  WATER  £ 35,000.00   £ 1,500.00   £ 36,500.00  NUTRIENT  £ 30,000.00   £ 30,000.00  WASTE  £ 36,500.00   £ 1,500.00   £ 38,000.00  ANIMAL HEALTH /

BIOSECURITY  £ 20,000.00   £ 1,500.00   £ 21,500.00  ANIMAL WELFARE  £ 15,000.00   £ 1,500.00   £ 16,500.00  CONSERVATION PLAN  £ 28,000.00   £ 1,500.00   £ 29,500.00  ENERGY  £ 21,000.00   £ 1,000.00   £ 22,000.00  CARBON NEUTRAL  £ 20,000.00   £ 1,000.00   £ 21,000.00  CARBON DATA  £ 8,500.00   £ -   £ 8,500.00  WOODLAND  £ 15,000.00   £ 15,000.00  HEALTH AND SAFETY  £ 1,500.00   £ 1,500.00  EIA  £ 1,000.00   £ 1,000.00  SEAWATER QUALITY  £ 1,500.00   £ 1,500.00  

Tier 1 Payments  £ 675,500.00   £ 90,225.13   £ 765,725.13

Tier 2

Tier 2 rewards activity which contributes directly to improving food resilience or recognises and promotes sustainable land management practices with a formula incentivising various primary land use activities.

Tier 2

Livestock / Fishing Activity DAIRY COWS

BEEF CATTLE POULTRY

GOATS

PIGS

SHEEP

DAYS AT SEA

OYSTER PURIFICATION Primary Land Use

GRASS >1 YEAR LEY OTHER LAND OUTDOOR CROPS ROUGH GRAZING INDOOR CROPS CONSERVATION OYSTER CONCESSION MUSSEL CONCESSION

RSS

£ 728,000.00  

£ 29,487.50  

£ 84,708.75  

£ 3,112.50  

£ 11,150.00  

£ 19,875.00  

£ 577,285.63  

£ 2,874.59  

£ 462,154.38  

£ 3,964.25  

£ 9,112.00  

£ 47,042.00  

MSS  COMBINED

£ 728,000.00  

£ 29,487.50  

£ 84,708.75  

£ 3,112.50  

£ 11,150.00  

£ 19,875.00  

£ 152,487.58   £ 152,487.58  

£ 19,775.00   £ 19,775.00  

£ 577,285.63  

£ 2,874.59  

£ 462,154.38  

£ 3,964.25  

£ 9,112.00  

£ 47,042.00  

£ 24,401.25   £ 24,401.25  

£ 1,000.00   £ 1,000.00  

Tier 2 Payments  £ 1,978,766.59   £ 197,663.83   £ 2,176,430.42

Tier 3

Tier 3 rewards activity delivered across a wide range of activities to underpin the social, environmental and economic resilience and sustainability of both sectors. The interventions are designed to promote adoption of working practices which align with high level Government policy ambitions.

Tier 3 includes support for project' grants, with businesses offered a specific amount of funding dependent on the number of credits awarded within the scheme. In 2024, 120 projects were approved and funded with the support representing 52% of the total value of projects delivered, the balance of funding from sector level investment.

Tier 3

Social Incentives STAFF FTE

WORK PERMIT FTE YOUNG PERSON SEA SURVIVAL FIRST AID

RSS

£ 225,000.00  

£ 87,500.00  

£ 28,125.00  

MSS

£ 53,875.00  

£ 11,250.00  

£ 10,312.50  

£ 7,312.50  

£ 7,650.00  

COMBINED

£ 278,875.00  

£ 98,750.00  

£ 38,437.50  

£ 7,312.50  

£ 7,650.00  

FIRE SAFTEY  £ 7,650.00   £ 7,650.00  Food Resilience Incentives

EAT SAFE  £ 1,550.00   £ 2,362.50   £ 3,912.50  GENUINE JERSEY  £ 10,312.50   £ 2,787.50   £ 13,100.00  GREAT TASTE AWARD  £ 500.00   £ -   £ 500.00  PRIMARY FORAGE  £ 130,003.75   £ 130,003.75  LOCAL FOOD (OUTDOOR)  £ 32,684.00   £ 525.00   £ 33,209.00  LOCAL FOOD (INDOOR)  £ 55,295.29   £ 55,295.29  MARKET GARDEN  £ 9,311.45   £ 9,311.45  ORGANIC (FOOD)  £ 61,035.50   £ -   £ 61,035.50  ORGANIC (GRAZING)  £ 3,405.63   £ 3,405.63  FOOD HYGIENE  £ 1,800.00   £ 2,300.00   £ 4,100.00  HEALTH CERT  £ 6,825.00   £ 6,825.00  PURIFICATION CERT  £ 75.00   £ 75.00  Environmental Incentives

COVER CROP SOILS  £ 121,757.81   £ 121,757.81  CROP BIOCONTROL  £ 41,220.63   £ 41,220.63  CROP BIODIVERSITY  £ 106,323.75   £ 106,323.75  PUBLIC ACCESS PATH  £ 18,470.10   £ 18,470.10  HEDGE MAINTENANCE  £ 248,341.40   £ 248,341.40  WILDLIFE PONDS  £ 14,375.00   £ 14,375.00  WASTE RECYCLING  £ 83,646.75   £ 3,375.00   £ 87,021.75  Economic Incentives

PROJECT GRANTS  £ 1,716,530.21   £ 45,446.95   £ 1,761,977.16  

Tier 3 Payments  £ 2,997,188.76   £ 161,746.95   £ 3,158,935.71 Summary of Rural and Marine Support Payments 2024

Direct Support Payments  RSS  MSS TOTAL

  Allocated 2024 Budget  £ 6,672,000.00   Balance  £ 11,908.74

  Underspend  0.18  %

(d)

The design of financial support interventions is focused on the delivery of improved outcomes with a large range of measures which essentially underpin the social, economic and environmental sustainability of these traditional sectors.

In summary, several high-level outcomes are targeted as a result of the Increase in revenue expenditure for agriculture and fisheries' (P.74/2023). 2024 will provide baseline data to enable year on year comparisons to be made going forward on a wide range of measurements which seek:

• An increase to the number of organisations participating in both these sectors (and receiving support);

• An increase in the area of managed farmland with primary land use defined on the RSS;

• An increase in the area of organic food production on the Island;

• An increase to the amount of food produced for local consumers;

• An increase to the supply of locally produced forage for livestock;

• An increase to participation of young people as owners/directors of organisations;

• An increase to rewards for workers within these sectors;

• An increase in the diversity of products available from local production;

• Improved economic performance and resilience of the sectors (profitability);

• Added value for fish and farming products;

• Improved levels of productivity across organisations within the sector;

• Better energy efficiency within organisations;

• To enable the transition to a carbon neutral trading environment;

• Improved soil health;

• Improved water quality;

• Enhanced biodiversity on farmland;

• An increase to areas of land managed for conservation;

• Improved public access to the countryside;

• An increase in waste recycling by the sectors;

The final report on the performance of the 2024 allocation of funds under the RSS and MSS has been rescheduled to Q4 2025 to allow sufficient time to collect 2024 financial data from every organisation in receipt of funding (a condition of scheme access) so that financial results can be included as an element of correlated data analysis to assess the impact of the schemes.

To date, the number of businesses registered for the RSS and MSS in 2025 has increased to 165 (from 125 in 2024) indicating a positive trend clearly influenced by the level of funding now available.