Minister confirms "States services could be sold to civil servants"

Friday 17 July 2015

States managers could be given the chance to “buy” their departments and set them up as profit-making businesses as part of the plan to close the £145 million deficit in public finances.

Ministers are considering schemes that have been run in the UK to allow managers of public sector services to take them into the private sector.

Under the options being considered, money-making services such as parks and gardens or parking control at TTS would be either incorporated as a States-owned company, or even sold outright.

Treasury Minister Alan Maclean said that ministers were at the very early stages of considering whether such a scheme could work here. Last year, the Coalition government spun off the Behavioural Insights Unit – and pensions staff and procurement teams have also been hived off to the private sector.

Senator Maclean said: “This is not new, but it is something that we are considering. In principle, there are functions of government run by employees that potentially could offer an opportunity for those employees to operate outside of the envelope of government and have a contract initially with the government and could deliver services to other areas as well.

“So we might say, here’s a contract for three to five years but you can also go out and find business from the private sector which gives them some certainty over the short term but also flexibility to look for business elsewhere.

“We would simply say to the management and staff here is the function, let's incorporate it and create a company. We might do some sort of sale, or have a buyout over a period of time. That would create opportunities for people.”

The proposal could become part of the package of measures planned to fill the £145 million deficit in public finances that will emerge by 2019.

Earlier this week Senator Maclean have unveiled spending plans for the next few years, including an extra £40 million funding for health and an extra £9 million for education, and cuts to the States’ wage bill worth £70 million.

And although no details have been released of planned charges that will be levied on Islanders to help to fill the gap, ministers have confirmed that they’re aiming to make £35 million from a “health charge” and a further £10 million from charges on waste.

That combined £45 million, divided by the number of households in Jersey, mean that as a very crude calculation, each household would have to find another £1,000 to pay in charges to the States by 2019.