Legalisation Fees: Alignment with United Kingdom

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A decision made 29 September 2011 regarding:

Decision Reference: MD-HA-2011-0054
Decision Summary Title :	Legalisation Fee Increases		Date of Decision Summary:	15 September 2011
Decision Summary Author:	Finance Director Home Affairs		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title :	Formula for Legalisation Fee Increases		Date of Written Report:	May 2011
Written Report Author:	Head of Customs and Immigration Service		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: To allow legalisation fees in Jersey to be set at the same rate as in the UK.
Decision(s): The Minister agreed to seek the approval of the Minister for Treasury and Resources to: adopt a formula allowing legalisation fees in Jersey to be aligned to those set in the UK; to increase the level of legalisation fee to £30.
Reason(s) for Decision: There is a similar precedent for this approach – in 2007 the Minister for Treasury and Resources agreed that application fees for British passports issued in Jersey could in future be always aligned to the UK fees (MD-TR-2007-0090). The provision of the service locally is of substantial advantage to the business community both in terms of time and money.
Resource Implications: It is anticipated that the fee increases will generate additional income of £70,000 which will be retained to contribute to the costs of providing the service.
Action required: Subject to the approval of the Minister for Treasury and Resources, the Head of the Customs and Immigration Service to implement the increase and place a notice in the Jersey Gazette.
Signature:		Position: Minister for Home Affairs
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

Legalisation Fees (Apostille): Alignment with United Kingdom

Report

To: Minister for Home Affairs

Submitted By: Mike Robinson, Head of Customs and Immigration Service

Subject: Formula for Legalisation fee increases

1. Purpose of Report

To ask the Minister for Treasury and Resources to approve a request from the Home Affairs Department to approve a formula for future rises in fees for legalisation of documents.

The paper gives a background explanation of the legalisation of documents in Jersey and the rationale behind the current request.

2. Background

Legalisation is the official confirmation by a government department that a signature, seal or stamp appearing on a document is genuine. The legal basis for the operation of the service is the Hague Convention of 05 October 1961 “Abolishing the requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents”. While the title of the Convention suggests that “legalisation” was to be abolished, what was actually introduced was a simplified procedure for authenticating signatures by the universal use of a certificate called an “apostille”. The provision of apostilles affixed to documents is the service that is provided and the process is loosely, though now commonly, referred to as “legalisation”.

The United Kingdom ratified the Convention on 21 August 1964 at the same time extending its application to Jersey. The issue of apostilles for documents originating in Jersey was undertaken by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) until 16 February 1990 when the responsibility for this service was formally transferred to the Lieutenant-Governor. Due to the existing links between the Lieutenant-Governor and the Immigration & Nationality Department, the latter was charged with carrying out this function on behalf of the Lieutenant-Governor. The income generated was to be retained, and the costs of providing the service met, by the States.

The FCO is empowered to set fees by Orders made under the Consular Fees Act, 1980, the latest Order being the Consular Fees Order 2011 (SI 2011 No. 738). The table below shows the fees applied in the UK and Jersey between 1990 and 2011.

Year	UK Fee (£)	Jersey Fee (£)	Jersey % Increase
1990	8	8
1994	10	10	25%
1996	12	12	20%
2005	19	19	58%
2007	27	20	5%
2008	27	20	0%
2009	28	21	5%
2010	28.8	21	0%
2011	30	30 (proposed)	43%

There is no Jersey legislation setting out the legalisation fee. From the outset it was accepted that Jersey would charge the same as the FCO and that was the practice since inception of the local service in 1990 until a ministerial decision (MD-HA-2007-0039) was taken in June 2007 to decouple the fees charged in Jersey with those charged in the UK. The rationale behind this decision was that there was no strong reason, other than historical conformity, as to why the same legalisation fee as the FCO should be applied in the Island.

The £21 fee currently charged in Jersey now falls significantly behind the £30 fee applied in the UK. The corresponding legalisation fee in Guernsey is currently set at £21, and in the Isle of Man it is £32.

An increase in the fee level in Jersey to £30 would provide an additional income to the States of Jersey of about £70,000 a year. The legalisation of documents falls into the External Obligations service area of Customs and Immigration. External Obligations includes Passport Issuance, Immigration Visa applications, Deportations and Naturalisations. All of these have direct and indirect costs and most also provide an income stream. The 2012 States Annual Business Plan will show that the forecast 2012 income for External Obligations is £1,082,000 and the expenditure forecast is £1,196,800. A full and detailed breakdown of each of the component functions (passports etc.) has not been undertaken in External Obligations to provide a definitive cost analysis. Instead we have treated the service area as a single entity and aggregated its expenditure and income. I believe that this is a reasonable approach as there are many overlaps of staff and indirect costs for each of the functions and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to unpick them satisfactorily. Thus the legalisation income should be included in the External Obligations total as it, quite correctly in my view, helps to meet the total cost of that service area.

Recommendation

It is suggested that there is strong justification in reverting back to the 1990-2007 practice of mirroring UK fee increases. Prior to 1990 users of the service, mainly finance and legal businesses, would have to get documents legalised by post, or in urgent cases by more costly personal attendance at the Legalisation Office in London. Thus the provision of the service locally is of substantial advantage to the business community both in terms of time and money.

UK legalisation fees have increased by some 57% over the 6 years between 2005 and 2011, or approximately 10% per annum. It is likely that the UK Government will continue to make further annual fee increases greater that 2.5%.

In Jersey, Financial Direction 4.1 requires the prior approval of the Minister for Treasury and Resources each and every time the average increase in a fee exceeds the lesser of 2.5% per annum or RPI(X) over the relevant period. However increases could be automatically aligned to UK levels if a formula is used under the provisions of paragraph 5.12 of the Financial Direction:

“5.12 The prior approval of the Minister for Treasury and Resources WILL NOT be required where increases are calculated by reference to statute, or by a formula which has already received the approval of the States or the Minister for Treasury and Resources.”

There is a precedent for this approach – in 2007 the Minister agreed that passport fees could in future be always aligned to the UK fees and that this constituted the use of a formula as allowed by paragraph 5.12 (MD reference: MD-TR-2007-0090).

It is recommended that the Minister gives approval that, until further notice, a formula is applied that will allow legalisation fees in Jersey to be set at the same rate as the UK.