Public Finances (Transitional Arrangements) (Amendment) (Jersey) Order 201-: Extension: Law Drafting Request

Information about the publication of Ministerial Decisions

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demonstrating that good governance, and clear lines of accountability and authority, are in place around decisions-making – including the reasons and basis on which a decision is made, and the action required to implement a decision
providing a record of decisions and actions that will be available for examination by States Members, and Panels and Committees of the States Assembly; the public, organisations, and the media; and as a historical record and point of reference for the conduct of public affairs

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A decision made 5 November 2012:

Decision Reference: MD-TR-2012-0097
Decision Summary Title:	Law Drafting request – Transitional Order		Date of Decision Summary:	29th October 2012
Decision Summary Author:	Head of Financial Management, Accounting & Reporting		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title:	Law Drafting request – Transitional Order		Date of Written Report:	29th October 2012
Written Report Author:	Head of Financial Management, Accounting & Reporting		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Law Drafting request – extension of Public Finances (Transitional Arrangements) (Amendment) (Jersey) Order 201-
Decision(s): The Minister approved the Law Drafting request for a further Public Finances (Transitional Arrangements) (Amendment) (Jersey) Order 201- for the period 1st January 2013 to 30th June 2013.
Reason(s) for Decision: The current Transitional Order expires on 31st December 2012. Amendments to the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005 are being prepared for consideration by the States and intended to be in place by mid 2013. Pending this, the Transitional Order needs to be extended to cover the interim period.
Resource Implications: Apart from the resources required to draft the Order and covering report there are no financial or manpower implications from this decision.
Action required: Projects Director to notify the Law Draftsman that this request has been approved.
Signature:		Position: Senator P F C Ozouf, Minister for Treasury and Resources
Date Signed:		Date of Decision:

Public Finances (Transitional Arrangements) (Amendment) (Jersey) Order 201-: Extension: Law Drafting Request

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Treasury and Resources

Ministerial Decision Report

Law drafting request – Transitional ORDER

Purpose of Report

The purpose of this report is to set out the requirements of the Minister for Treasury and Resources for:-

the introduction of a further Transitional Order for the period 1st January 2013 to 30th June 2013 as the current Order expires on 31st December 2012; and
to instruct the Law Draftsman to draft the relevant legislation.

Background

2.1 Transitional Order

The Public Finances (Amendment No. 3) Law was approved by the UK Privy Council and was effective from 1st January 2012.

From 1st January 2012 the existing Articles 7 – 20 fell and were replaced by the Articles included in Amendment No 3.

The amending legislation empowered the Minister via the Public Finances (Transitional Arrangements) (Amendment) (Jersey) Order, to make transitional provisions to enable the smooth progressions from the old Articles to the new ones. It was important that expenditure and income and other administrative arrangements approved under the old process are able to continue under the new arrangements – the presentation of the Order ensured that this happened for 2012.

However, amendments to the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005 are currently being prepared which if approved by the States would be implemented from mid 2013. As a result there is a need to introduce a further Transitional Order, for the first six months of 2013, to extend two of the provisions from the previous Order (those that allow the Minister to approve transfers and the old Article 11(8) provision to be extended)

In order to progress the “Order” the Minister is asked to agree that the Law Draftsman be asked to prepare the relevant Order.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Minister for Treasury and Resources approve the request for additional Law Drafting in order to extend the Public Finances (Transitional Arrangements) (Amendment) (Jersey) Order 201- until 30th June 2013.

Reason for Decision

The current Transitional Order expires on 31st December 2012. Amendments to the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005 are being prepared for consideration by the States and intended to be in place by mid 2013. Pending this, the Transitional Order needs to be extended to cover the interim period..

Resource Implications

Apart from the resources required to draft the Order there are no financial or manpower implications from this decision.

Report author :	Document date 29/10/12
Quality Assurance / Review :	File name and path: L:\Treasury\Sections\Corporate Finance\Ministerial Decisions\DSs, WRs and SDs\2012-0096 -\WR - Law Drafting request Transitional Order from Jan 2013 - JS.doc
MD sponsor : Treasurer of the States

Appendix A

Public Finances (Jersey) Order 201-

It is recommended that the Order required to enable the smooth transition for the implementation of the Public Finances (Amendment No 3) Law covers the following areas:

that 2012 Expenditure and Income is approved as if it were the final year of the Medium Term Financial Plan (This should mean that the procedures and processes set in the Law Amendment will apply to 2012 expenditure and income);
if the above bullet point is approved this would give the opportunity to formally set up and operate the new “contingency” in 2012;
In the 2012 Annual Business Plan a sum of £12,485,000 was provided for “central reserves” within the Treasury and Resources departmental budget at this stage it is not known whether this sum is sufficient to cover all additional funding problems in 2012 and it is recommended that the Minister request that the existing Article 11(8) in the current Law be retained for 2012;
The Order should enable the 2011 financial year end process to be completed under the existing Public Finances Law prior to any amendments.
The only proviso to this is that any unallocated carry forwards after the 2011 year end process have been followed should be transferred into the new Contingency.
The Order should enable all revenue carry forwards and all allocated but unspent capital allocations to be available for spend in 2012.