Budget transfer from Central Contingencies to Treasury and Resources Department: International, Tax Policy Unit and Business Taxes Teams resources

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A decision made 9 June 2017:

Decision reference: MD-TR-2017-0079
Decision Summary Title:	Contingency Funding Request - Increasing capacity and capability of Taxes International Team, Tax Policy Unit and Business Taxes		Date of Decision Summary:	5th June 2017
Decision Summary Author:	Finance Manager, Taxes Office		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title:	Contingency Funding Request - Increasing capacity and capability of Taxes International Team, Tax Policy Unit and Business Taxes		Date of Written Report:	5th June 2017
Written Report Author:	Finance Manager, Taxes Office		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Exempt Article 34
Subject: The transfer of £2,295,000 from Central Contingencies to Treasury and Resources for the Taxes Office to increase both the capacity and capability of the Taxes Office International, Tax Policy Unit and Business Taxes teams. Funding is to be allocated in annual tranches with indicative annual funding allocation as follows: of up to £635,000 for 2017; of up to £830,000 for 2018; and of up to £830,000 for 2019. A temporary increase of 9.0 fte within the Treasury and Resources Taxes Office, for the period 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2019 to be funded by the transfer request. A separate growth bid will be submitted to permanently increase the Treasury and Resources Taxes Office FTE for 2020 onwards, in relation to the FTE funded by this request. In addition, the transfer request will fund accommodation and IT costs related to the increase in FTE funded by this request.
Decision(s): The Treasury and Resources Minister approved one off budget transfers of indicative amounts of up to £635,000 in 2017; of up to £830,000 in 2018; and of up to £830,000 in 2019 from Central Contingencies to the Treasury and Resources revenue head of expenditure for the Taxes Office to increase the capacity and capability of Taxes International Team, Tax Policy Unit and Business Taxes in order to maintain and improve the core business-as-usual programme of the Taxes Office. The Minister also approved an increase of 9.0 FTE within the Treasury and Resources Taxes Office for the period 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2019.
Reason(s) for Decision: Article 17(2) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005 states that the Minister for Treasury and Resources is authorised to approve the transfer from contingency expenditure or the insurance fund of amounts not exceeding, in total, the amount available for contingency expenditure in a financial year. The Contingency Allocation Policy published by the Minister for Treasury and Resources (R.10/2012) states that all requests for Allocation from Contingency will be considered by the Council of Ministers and this restructuring provision bid was approved at their meeting on 26th April 2017. To comply with P67/1999 which charges the Minister for Treasury and Resources to regulate the number of persons that may be employed by the States. The Council of Ministers approved the required funding, as outlined in the Business Case (Increasing Capacity and Capability of the two teams under the direction of the Deputy Comptroller of Taxes) from Central Contingencies in their meeting of 26th April 2017.
Resource Implications: The Treasury and Resources revenue head of expenditure to increase indicatively by of up to £635,000 in 2017; of up to £830,000 in 2018; and of up to £830,000 in 2019. Central Contingencies to decrease by the same amount in the corresponding years. This decision does not change the total amount of expenditure approved by the States in the Medium Term Financial Plan 2016 to 2019. The £2,295,000 in total is proposed to be drawn down in 2017, 2018 and 2019 but the amount for each year may be varied without exceeding the total amount for the three years A temporary increase of 9 FTE in the Treasury and Resources (Taxes Office), for the period 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2019, increasing the total FTE in Treasury and Resources from 213.9 to 222.9 (9.0 fte to be removed 1st January 2020). These are all funded by the transfer from Central Contingencies. The Council of Ministers noted that the increase in headcount and payroll would be included in a separate growth bid for 2020 onwards.
Action required: The Head of Decision Support to advise the Finance Director of the Corporate Group that this decision is approved.
Signature:		Position: Senator A J H Maclean Minister for Treasury and Resources
Date Signed:		Date of Decision: