Business licence numbers (FOI)

Request  

The Control of Housing and Work (Jersey) Law, 2012 requires all persons carrying on an undertaking to have a license approved by the Chief Minister (Articles 25 and 26). An appropriate license may be i) a business license, ii) a hawker's license and iii) a non-resident trading licence (Article 25(2)). 

Where I refer to 'business license' below, please consider this a request for information regarding business licenses alone (i.e., not including hawker's licenses or non-resident trading licenses). 

For each of the last 5 years, please could you confirm: 

A

The number of new business licenses approved by the Chief Minister. 

B

Of these business licenses, the number of licenses awarded to startup businesses who did not have pre-existing operations (either in Jersey or abroad). 

C

Of these 'startup' business licenses, the number awarded to businesses run by principal persons who were not previously Jersey residents. 

Article 27 of the law allows the Chief Minister to specify conditions to the award of a business license. 

D

Please could you confirm if the States aggregate any information on the conditions applied to licenses, such as average duration or average number of new jobs required to be created? If so, please provide these statistics for each of the last 5 years.

Article 29 allows a license holder to apply to vary the conditions of a license. For each of the last 5 years, please could you confirm:

E

How many business license holders applied to vary the conditions of their license?

F

Of these applications, how many were approved?

A licence granted under Article 26 (whether or not varied under Article 29) may be revoked by the Chief Minister under the powers afforded by Article 30.

For each of the last 5 years, please could you confirm:

G

How many business licenses were revoked?

F

Of these, how many were revoked as a result of failure to comply with the conditions of the license (Article 30(1)(a)(ii))?

Response

A

The total number of Resident Business Licences granted since 1st August 2017 is 4931:

B

The information requested is not held by the Government of Jersey as applications or a business record is for a start-up is not recorded. Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

C

The information requested is not held by the Government of Jersey as applications or a business record is for a start-up is not recorded. Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

D

The total number of Business Licences granted since the 1 August 2017 with conditions applied are as follows (please note, some of these businesses may have since ceased).

Conditions are recorded as free-text against each application and vary depending on the business. To answer the request, the data would need to be extracted manually and this would take more than the prescribed 12.5 hours. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

E

There is no formal application process in the system to vary the conditions placed on a licence. This would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and recorded as a revision to licence, variation of staffing conditions or expiring licence review. This information is therefore not held, and Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

F

There is no formal application process in the system to vary the conditions of a licence, this would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and recorded as appeal or general enquiry. This information is therefore not held, and Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

G

If a business licence is revoked, it would be closed using the standard cease trading process which does not record a reason for ending. This information is therefore not held, and Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

H

 If a business licence is revoked, it would be closed using the standard cease trading process which does not record a reason for ending. This information is therefore not held, and Article 10 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

Articles applied

Article 10 - Obligation of scheduled public authority to confirm or deny holding Information

(1)     Subject to paragraph (2), if –

(a)     a person makes a request for information to a scheduled public authority; and

(b)     the authority does not hold the information, it must inform the applicant accordingly.

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive 

(1)     A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.