In brief: Economic Development Minister Deputy Gerald Voisin has admitted that Jersey lacks the legislation needed to properly support social enterprises, forcing organisations to jump through two separate regulatory hoops. He has pledged to push the issue forward within the Council of Ministers, though responsibility for drafting any framework lies with other ministers.
A Square Peg in a Round Hole
If you have ever tried to fit a social enterprise into Jersey’s existing legal framework, you will know the feeling: a bit like trying to post a parcel through a letterbox designed for something entirely different. The Jersey Evening Post reports that Deputy Gerald Voisin, the Economic Development Minister, has acknowledged a “gap in legislation” that leaves organisations wishing to reinvest profits into social good with no clean legal home of their own.
The issue was raised in the States Assembly by St Helier Constable Inna Gardiner, who asked whether the minister intends to develop a proper framework for social enterprises in Jersey. A social enterprise, for those unfamiliar with the model, operates much like a conventional business, selling products or services, but channels its profits towards addressing societal problems rather than enriching shareholders.
Deputy Voisin confirmed that no “legal distinction” for determining what constitutes a social enterprise has yet been established, and that the current workaround is, in his own words, “rather clunky.” Organisations currently have to register as a charity and then separately establish a company, a two-step process that he described as laden with “lots of bureaucracy.”
Beresford Street Kitchen: A Case in Point
To illustrate the problem in human terms, Deputy Voisin pointed to Beresford Street Kitchen, an organisation that provides training and employment opportunities for people with learning difficulties and autism. It is precisely the kind of outfit a social enterprise framework is designed to support, yet it must currently navigate the double burden of charity registration and company establishment simply to operate within the law.
“A social enterprise would give a one-fix solution to this,” Deputy Voisin said, “but it does need to be nestled within some form of legislative framework.” It is hard to argue with that logic. The question, as ever with Jersey’s government, is how long it will take to get there.
Who Is Actually Going to Do Something?
Here is where things get a little more complicated. Deputy Voisin was candid in pointing out that the responsibility for developing the legislative framework does not, strictly speaking, sit with him. He indicated that the onus falls on the External Relations Minister and the Home Affairs Minister respectively. “It will ultimately rest with those people,” he said.
That said, he did offer Constable Gardiner a personal undertaking: “I’m giving the Constable an undertaking that I will bring this forward and push this along.” He also framed the matter as an example of how the Council of Ministers needs to work together, which is either an encouraging sign of joined-up thinking or a polite way of acknowledging that cross-departmental initiatives have a habit of moving at a glacial pace.
For Jersey’s growing community of purpose-driven businesses and charities, the practical upshot is that the current system imposes unnecessary administrative costs and complexity on organisations that are, by definition, trying to do good. Every hour spent on duplicated paperwork is an hour not spent on training someone with autism or feeding a vulnerable resident.
Source: Jersey Evening Post
