Economic Affairs - Approved Panel Minutes - 14 November 2007

Ref Back

Agenda matter

Action

1.

Minutes

The Minutes of the meetings held on 3rd October 2007 and 17th October 2007 were approved.

NJF

2.

Chairmen's Committee briefing notes

The  Panel  considered  the  briefing  notes  of  the  Chairmen's Committee meeting dated 2nd November 2007. It noted that the Committee had considered position reports from all Panels, the Scrutiny newsletter, and papers from all Panels on the Business Planning process.

3.

Annual Business Plan

The Chairman and Deputy Breckon briefed the Panel on the recent meeting between the Chairmen's Committee and the Chief Minister regarding future business planning.

It was generally agreed within the Chairmen's Committee that the arrangements for scrutiny of the annual Business Plan were in need of improvement. The main concerns were-

• Preliminary  estimates  of  expenditure  were  subject  to considerable change by the time of the finalised Business Plan

• Internal  fund  transfers  were  still  possible  after  the finalisation of the Business Plan

• Timetables for review  were  very tight and the period in which  panels  were  required  to  consider  the  finalised Business Plan spanned the summer recess

• The change in the Economic Development Department's

accounting  format  had  made  year-to-year  changes  in expenditure extremely hard to determine

The  Chief  Minister  had  indicated  that,  in  future,  changes  in Departmental expenditure would be highlighted and formats would remain consistent. He also stated that preliminary figures would be binding. It was likely however that the timetable for consideration of the Business Plan would remain tight, especially in light of the need to  complete  the  process  prior  to  the  elections  scheduled  for December 2008.

The Panel welcomed the stated intents of the Chief Minister but noted  that  the  implementation  of  these  changes  would  require oversight.

In  order  to  asses  the  Business  Planning  process,  the  Panel directed officers to collate all material from the consideration of the States  Business  Plan  2007  and  make  it  available  for  the  next meeting. This was to include budget reconciliations, statistics, data and questions to the Minister and Department during the year.

In addition, consideration of the Business Plan was to be included on all future agendas.

NJF NJF

4.

Forthcoming propositions

The Panel noted the following forthcoming propositions-

• The Draft Finance (Jersey) Law 200- lodged au Greffe' on 23rd October 2007 by the Treasury and Resources Minister

• the Draft Public Finances (Amendment No. 2) (Jersey) Law 200-  lodged  au  Greffe'  on  23rd  October  2007  by  the Treasury and Resources Minister

• the Draft Gambling (Remote Gambling Disaster Recovery) (Jersey)  Regulations 200-  lodged  au  Greffe'  on  31st October 2007 by the Economic Development Minister

The  Panel  considered  the  Draft  Gambling  (Remote  Gambling Disaster  Recovery)  (Jersey)  Regulations 200-,  and  noted  that these  Regulations  permitted  businesses  involved  in  internet  or other gambling to operate from Jersey in the case of an emergency for up to nine weeks.

The Panel was of the opinion that this could be a first step in establishing that Jersey was capable of operating such systems, which could lead to these businesses being permanently registered in Jersey in the future.

Accordingly,  the  Panel  decided  to  prepare  a  response  to  the Regulations, to take the form of comments or to be sent to the Minister.

The  Chairman  was  delegated to  prepare this response for  the approval of the Panel.

GS

5.

Question to Ministers

The Panel noted that the Education Sport and Culture Minister and the Planning and Environment Minister were to be questioned without notice at the next meeting of the States on 20th November 2007.

6.

Jersey Tourism public-private partnership

The Panel considered a document produced by Locum Consulting, entitled Marketing Jersey – Organisation Plan Final Report Version 4', dated September 2007.

The Panel noted that the report proposed the development of an organisation  to  promote  Jersey  as  a  tourist  destination,  to  be funded by the tourism industry and the States. The relationship to the  tourism  industry  would  be  similar  to  that  between  Jersey Finance Limited (JFL) and the finance industry.

The  Panel  examined  the  document  and  noted  the  similarity  in public-private partnership (PPP) structure with JFL. Concerns were raised over section 1.7 of the document which stated that-

"The new PPP would create a better vehicle for lobbying, especially  because  it  would  have  a  senior  officer  and representative of the States on its Board"

The Panel did not consider it appropriate that public funds should be  paid  to  an  organisation  for  the  purposes  of  lobbying  the government. This was a function for private industry and was in no way deserving of subsidy.

The Panel considered the possibility of broadening the scope of the forthcoming review of JFL to include this PPP (see item 12). After some discussion it was agreed that this might overextend the terms of reference and length of the review.

The Panel reserved the right to undertake limited consideration of the  structure  in  relation  to  JFL  under  the  catchall'  term  of reference, however.

7.

Draft Price and Charge Indicators (Jersey) Law 200-

Further  to  the  Panel's  review  of  the  draft   Price  and  Charge Indicators  (Jersey)  Law  200-,  it  recalled  that  the  Economic Development Minister had stated during the meeting of the States of 7th November 2007 that-

"The default position for price marking should be inclusive but people should get a till receipt showing what the GST is.The  Economic  Affairs  Scrutiny  Panel  has  my undertaking (and I think we agree, the Treasury Minister and I) that that is what the end situation should be."

He  also  noted  that  Regulations  under  the  Law  would  be

immediately published for consultation.

The Panel was gratified to note that the Economic Development Minister had given an undertaking as above. However, it expressed concerns as to the timing of the imposition of mandatory receipting, and accordingly decided to develop an amendment to the GST Regulations to require that businesses registered for GST provide a  receipt  with  all  transactions  to  indicate  how  much  GST  was incurred.

Officers were directed to take the appropriate action.

8.

Harbours (Amendment No. 1) (Jersey) Regulations 200-

The Panel received a consultation document and draft copy of the Harbours (Amendment No. 1) (Jersey) Regulations 200-.

The Panel was broadly in favour of the stated aims of the draft Regulations, which were intended to establish a legal basis for the Economic Development Minister to effect changes to permits to use local port facilities.

It  was  not  clear  to  the  Panel,  however,  why  a  consultation document on draft Regulations had been released when these Regulations were to be finalised and re-issued for consultation in the future.

Notwithstanding  this,  the  Panel  delegated   Deputy  Breckon  and Connétable Jackson to produce a response to the consultation document if they deemed it appropriate on further examination.

AB MJ

9.

National Lottery – extension to Jersey

The Panel received a white paper from the Economic Development Department regarding the possible extension of the UK National Lottery to Jersey.

The Panel examined the document and concluded that several key questions were unanswered-

• The white paper indicated that 12p in the pound of UK ticket sales was remitted to the government in lottery duty', and that these funds would accrue to the States if the lottery were to be extended. It was not stated by what mechanism this money was to be paid to the States.

• Since  2001  the  Association  of  Jersey  Charities  had received the Jersey share of the profits of all lottery draws. The white paper did not indicate if any replacement funds will be made available.

• The Panel also sought to determine which retailers will be permitted to distribute the tickets, and if this was not yet established,  what  mechanism  will  be  used  to  make  the decision.

 It was unclear what if GST would be absorbed into one or more components of the ticket price or if it would be passed directly onto the consumer.

Officers were directed to draft a letter to the Assistant Economic Development Minister seeking clarification of these matters. The Chairman  was  delegated  to  approve  the  correspondence  once drafted.

NJF GS

10.

Panel expenditure report

The Panel received a report on its expenditure during 2007, and the funds available to it as at 15th November 2007.

The  Panel  noted  that  £67,792.87  of  its  £80,000.00  budget remained.

11.

Item 4 03.10.07

Rural economy

The Panel recalled that it had been scheduled to meet with the Director of Environmental Management and Rural Economy on this date, but that unavoidable changes in the timing of other meetings had made this impossible.

The  Panel  noted  documents  produced  by  the  Economic Development  Department  concerning  outstanding  agricultural loans and the situation regarding Single Area Payments to the glasshouse industry.

Officers were directed to arrange a meting with the Director of Environmental Management and Rural Economy for the first week in December. Deputy Breckon and Deputy Martin were delegated to develop questions for the meeting based on the documents received.

NJF AB JM

12.

Item 12 17.10.07

Role and funding of Jersey Finance Limited

The Panel noted scoping documents and terms of reference for the proposed review of the role and funding of Jersey Finance Limited (JFL).

The  Panel  approved  the  scoping  document  and  terms  of reference, including an initial budget estimate of £7,400. The Panel directed officers to produce a draft call for evidence to be included in  the  publications  of  the  Jersey  Chamber  of  Commerce,  the Institute of Directors, and the Business Brief' section of the Jersey Evening Post.

Officers  were  also  directed  to  arrange  Public  Hearings  on  the subject.

It  was  agreed  that  notwithstanding  the  similarity  between  the previously  considered  Jersey  Tourism  public-private  partnership and the operation of JFL, it would not formally form part of the review (see item 6).

EKW

The Panel anticipated that the review would take 16 weeks to complete, and that the report would be presented to the States on 11th March 2007.

13.

Item 13 17.03.07

Retail Strategy Review

The  Panel  noted  since  the  last  consideration  of  this  item,  the Jersey  Competition  Regulatory  Authority  had  launched  a consultation into the possible effects of a third supermarket entrant in Jersey.

The terms of reference for this review were those developed by the Economic Development Department in September 2007. These had been maintained despite the recommendation of the Panel that the Department adopt more rigorous terms of reference, provided by letter to the Department on 2nd October 2007.

The Panel expressed dissatisfaction that the JCRA had apparently launched this review without consideration of the work carried out by the Panel. The Chairman was delegated to prepare a response to the consultation document.

The Panel noted that Deputy Breckon remained conflicted in terms of  this  review  due  to  his  position  of  Chairman  of  the  Jersey Consumer Council and that accordingly he reserved his position.

GS

14.

Draft Code of Practice

The Panel noted the draft Code of Practice for Scrutiny Panels and the  Public  Accounts  Committee,  as  well  as  the  proposed amendments of the Council of Ministers.

15.

Future meetings

The Panel noted that its next meeting was provisionally to be held at 9.30pm on 28th November 2007 in the Blampied Room, States Building. The Panel also noted however that Deputy Breckon and Connétable Jackson were likely to be unavailable at this time, and the Chairman was delegated to alter the timing of this meeting if it appeared  that  the  Panel  would  for  whatever  reason  not  be quorate.

GS