Number of licences issued to businesses in the hospitality sector (FOI)

​Request

I would like to know how many licences to employ non local staff are currently issued and to what businesses in the hospitality sector.

Response

Registered Permissions

The information above has been provided on an aggregate basis for the hospitality sector as at 17 December 2015.

Having received a number of FOI requests regarding business licensing staffing permissions, it has become clear that release of specific business information has an impact on the businesses involved and / or the economy as a whole, and so only aggregate data is supplied.

Exemption(s)

FOI exemption(s) applied:

Article 33 Commercial Interests

Article 34 The Economy

Justification for exemption(s)

Article 33 Commercial Interests

• ​​Disclosing staffing permissions granted to individual businesses may provide a competitive advantage or disadvantage to a business. For example, a business expanding or contracting may find it easier or more difficult to recruit staff compared to competitors or it may generally benefit or undermine its trading position
  
• ​Existing businesses may not wish to recruit Registered staff should such information be publicly available, as it may feel its reputation is damaged. This would impact on that businesses’ growth prospects/profitability etc and have a potentially negative effect on the economy as a whole if individual business licencing staffing permissions is publicly available, for example banks, trust businesses, hotels, restaurants etc
  
• Inward investment businesses may be discouraged from locating to Jersey if it’s Registered staffing permissions may be publicly available as it may feel its reputation could be damaged if publicly criticised
  

Article 34 The Economy

• The cumulative effect of the individual commercial interests may have a negative effect on the Jersey Economy and financial interest of the States of Jersey should businesses be discouraged from locating, investing and expanding in Jersey
  
• ​In particular, the States Strategic Plan very clearly emphasises the importance of economic growth as our society ages and costs such as health care costs rise, with a key element of that plan focused on business and job creation in a wide range of sectors and including inward investment