£727,000 grant to fund Jersey-focused competition watchdog

Wednesday 24 March 2021

Jersey’s newly independent competition watchdog has been given up to £727,000 of public money to fund its work this year.

Treasury Minister Susie Pinel recently approved the Government’s annual grant, which will “fund the cost of delivering the objectives contained within the JCRA’s 2021 business plan."

This year is the first full year of the JRCA’s return as a distinct body, after last July’s break-up of the 10-year-old Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities.

The divorce followed a shock request from Jersey’s Economic Development Minister, Senator Lyndon Farnham, to his Guernsey counterpart in February 2020.

While Guernsey's Deputy Charles Parkinson said his committee believed any perceived issues with the regulator could be ironed out, he said Senator Farnham felt the shared path could be followed no further. The break-up decision was officially announced two months later.

The JCRA now has its own board, led by Stephanie Liston, and a permanent CEO, Tim Ringsdore. 

£577,000 of the recently-approved grant money will enable the JCRA to oversee the island's competition law. The balance, £170,000, was allocated in the last Government Plan to increase the ability of the authority to supervise individual markets.

The money constitutes around half of the JCRA’s expected £1.5m income for 2021. Other sources of income include telecoms licence fees (£665,000), the licence fee of Ports of Jersey (£180,000) and postal licence fees (£22,000).

Priorities in the JCRA 2021 business plan include carrying out market and price reviews for the Business Connectivity Market and Wholesale Broadband Access Services in the telecoms sector and reviewing quality of service targets at Ports of Jersey and Jersey Post.

Pictured: JCRA chair Stephanie Liston and CEO Tim Ringsdore.

This year, the JCRA also plans to carry out more market studies, non-binding research exploring whether a market is working well for the island by considering its structure and the relationship between consumers and firms in the sector.

The last study, which looked into the freight market, was undertaken in 2017. Previous subjects have included aviation and marine fuel, groceries and tobacco.

The authority will also be dealing with a number of ongoing telecoms matters this year.

Last month, the JCRA wrote to JT and Sure to inform them that it intended to fine them over a number of 999 call failures in early 2020. The networks now have the opportunity to provide a response, which will be considered by the regulator before it issues its final penalty order.

It will also be dealing with an outstanding investigation into whether JT and Sure breached competition law in relation to the construction and operation of 5G networks in Guernsey and in Jersey, and a network blackout last summer that saw thousands of JT customers unable to use wifi or make calls for six hours, which JT later said was due to a "malfunctioning clock".