Blue Island: Extension of Contract for provision of essential interim Air Connectivity

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A decision made on 27 November 2020

Decision Reference: MD-TR-2020-0147
Decision Summary Title:	Restart the Blue Islands Contract for provision of essential interim Air Connectivity		Date of Decision Summary:	27th November 2020
Decision Summary Author:	Group Director, Strategic Finance		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	n/a
Written Report Title:	Restart the Blue Islands Contract for provision of essential interim Air Connectivity		Date of Written Report:	27th November 2020
Written Report Author:	Group Director, Strategic Finance		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Approval of a restart to the arrangement with Blue Island for the provision of essential interim Air Connectivity to and from the Island.
Decision(s): The Minister approved the restart to the arrangement with Blue Island for the provision of essential interim Air Connectivity to and from the Island.
Reason(s) for Decision: Article 15(3) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2019 states that the approval by the States of a Government Plan authorises the Minister to direct how an approved appropriation for a reserve head of expenditure in the plan may be spent (including on another head of expenditure) in the first financial year covered by the plan. The current Policy for Allocations from the Reserve agreed by the Minister for Treasury and Resources (published as R.80/2020) sets the requirement that all proposed allocations from the General Reserve (Covid-19), once recommended for approval by the States Treasurer (taking into account comments from the Principal Accountable Office), are referred for review to either the Council of Ministers or the relevant Competent Authorities Ministers prior to submission to the Minister for approval. Funding of up to £330,000 was allocated to the Office of the Chief Executive (OCE) head of expenditure in 2020 through MD-TR-2020-0037 to allow Government of Jersey to contract with Blue Islands to provide air services for the movement of essential workers and non-emergency medical patients on a non-commercial basis. The funding was originally provided for the initial minimum contract period of three months (as envisaged by the initial business case) but was subsequently extended (by MD-TR-2020-0074) for a further month (to the end of July). This extension responded to the circumstances whereby commercial flights to and from the Island did not recommence until mid-July. Recent significant increases in the number of cases of Covid-19 in Europe, have led both the UK and Jersey Governments to implement stricter public health restrictions. England is operating under a lockdown situation until (at least) 2nd December 2020. Inevitably these increased restrictions have negatively impacted the number of people willing or able to travel between the UK and Jersey (and vice-versa). It is noted that on the 21st November 2020 the Competent Authorities Ministers endorsed the proposals to restart these additional flights to ensure minimum acceptable levels of air connectivity. The proposal is for the Director of Partnerships, through OCE, to agree such routes as may be required and appropriate to service the Island’s immediate air connectivity needs with Blue Island, subject to such modelled costs being within the value of un-utilised amounts under the allocation to the OCE head of expenditure made by MD-TR-2020-0037. Further to this update, the Treasurer recommends this further extension to the Minister for approval within the original funding allocation.
Resource Implications: The restart of the Scheme is forecast to be met within the initial allocation of £330,000 made in MD-TR-2020-0037 so there are no additional resource implications arising from this decision.
Action required: The Head of Financial Governance to advise the Group Director, Strategic Finance and the Head of Finance Business Partnering of OCE that this decision is approved.
Signature:		Position: Deputy S J Pinel Minister for Treasury and Resources
Date Signed:

Blue Island: Extension of Contract for provision of essential interim Air Connectivity

Treasury and Exchequer

Ministerial Decision Report

Restart the Blue Islands Contract for provision of essential interim Air Connectivity

Purpose of Report

To enable the Minister to consider the restart of the arrangement with Blue Islands for provision of essential Air Connectivity to and from the Island.

Background

On 7 April 2020, the Minister approved MD-TR-2020-0037, which allocated Reserve Funding to OCE (Office of the Chief Executive) to cover emergency funding to enable essential air connectivity to and from the Island.

The original business case sought, and was awarded, funding of £330,000 (which included a contingency element of £50,000) for the initial 3-month period. Within the terms of the contract, it permitted for a rolling one-month extension up to the maximum of 12-months. The contract was subsequently extended (by MD-TR-2020-0074) for a further month (to the end of July).

In response to the recent significant increases in the number of cases of Covid-19 in Europe, which have led both the UK and Jersey Governments to implement stricter public health restrictions and the subsequent impact on the number of people willing or able to travel between the UK and Jersey (and vice-versa), there is a need to re-instate the life-line flights both for essential personnel / public use and or medical only flights (if so required). The arrangement will be funded through unspent monies under the original allocation for 2020.

Recommendation

The Minister is recommended to approve the restart of the Blue Islands contract for provision of essential Air Connectivity to and from the Island.

Reason for Decision

Article 15(3) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2019 states that the approval by the States of a government plan authorises the Minister to direct how an approved appropriation for a reserve head of expenditure in the plan may be spent (including on another head of expenditure) in the first financial year covered by the plan.

The current Policy for Allocations from the Reserve agreed by the Minister for Treasury and Resources (published as R.80/2020) sets the requirement that all proposed allocations from the General Reserve (Covid-19), once recommended for approval by the States Treasurer (taking into account comments from the Principal Accountable Office), are referred for review to either the Council of Ministers or the relevant Competent Authorities Ministers prior to submission to the Minister for approval. The Competent Authorities Ministers asked that this lifeline be activated as soon as possible in their meeting of the 11th November 2020.

Funding of up to £330,000 was allocated to the Office of the Chief Executive (OCE) head of expenditure in 2020 through MD-TR-2020-0037 to allow Government of Jersey to contract with Blue Islands to provide air services for the movement of essential workers and non-emergency medical patients on a non-commercial basis.

The funding was originally provided for the initial minimum contract period of three months (as envisaged by the initial business case) but was subsequently extended for a further month (to the end of July). This extension responded to the circumstances whereby commercial flights to and from the Island did not recommence until mid-July.

Recent significant increases in the number of cases of Covid-19 in Europe, have led both the UK and Jersey Governments to implement stricter public health restrictions. England is operating under a lockdown situation until (at least) 2nd December 2020. Inevitably these increased restrictions have negatively impacted the number of people willing or able to travel between the UK and Jersey (and vice-versa).

It is noted that on the 21st November 2020 the Competent Authorities Ministers endorsed the proposals to restart these additional flights to ensure minimum acceptable levels of air connectivity.

The proposal is for the Director of Partnerships, through OCE, to agree such routes as may be required and appropriate to service the Island’s immediate needs with Blue Island, subject to such modelled costs being within the value of un-utilised amounts under the allocation to OCE Head of Expenditure made by MD-TR-2020-0037.

Further to this update, the Treasurer recommends this restart to the Minister for approval within the original funding allocation.

Resource Implications

The extension of the Scheme is forecast to be met within the initial allocation of £330,000 made in MD-TR-2020-0037 so there are no additional resource implications arising from this decision.

Report author: Group Director, Strategic Finance	Document date: 27 November 2020
Quality Assurance / Review: Head of Financial Governance	File name and path: L:\Treasury\Sections\Corporate Finance\Ministerial Decisions\DS, WR and SD\2020-0147 - Restart the Blue Islands Contract for provision of essential interim Air Connectivity
MD sponsor: Treasurer of the States