JERSEY’S new licensing law remains on track after fiery exchanges in the States Assembly that at one stage threatened to torpedo the replacement of the existing 50-year-old law.
After more than three hours’ debate, Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel won the backing of Members by 40 votes to one for the new law.
But the tally of votes belied the rough ride given to the minister in the Chamber, with Deputy Morel at one stage facing down a move to halt the debate which could potentially have scuppered his hopes of having the new law passed before the end of the current political term at the start of April.
Instead the minister will bring the matter back to the Assembly in a month’s time, when he hopes to win support for the detailed legislation and get his licensing reform agenda over the line.
Several Members were critical of the move to transfer responsibility for licensing matters from the Licensing Assembly, made up of Jurats and chaired by the Bailiff, to the Gambling Commission.
There were also multiple demands made of Deputy Morel to demonstrate the need to change the current system.
Deputy Philip Bailhache said he had doubts over whether the new system was fit for purpose, and if the old law really needed replacing.
“Why fix something that ain’t broke?” he asked.
The proposed “reference back”, put forward by Deputy Andy Howell, was supported by several of the Constables, who had collectively argued in an amendment to the law that responsibility should be moved to the parishes, rather than the newly-renamed Alcohol and Gambling Commission.
Deputy Howell’s move was met with an angry response from Deputy Morel, who countered criticism over a lack of engagement with a dateline of meetings with Constables and other stakeholders.
“Some people are trying to derail this and stifle the economy of the Island on the altar of their own preference for the status quo,” he said. “We have those who don’t want to see progress in this Island trying all sorts of mechanisms to stop it.”
Constable Deidre Mezbourian rounded on the minister, pointing out that many of the current Constables had taken part in meetings over licensing reform with Deputy Morel’s predecessor back in 2014, “before the young Deputy [Morel] even set foot in the Chamber”.
“I’d like to remind the minister that the Deputy [Howell] was well within her rights to propose the reference back,” she added. “Shouting and getting agitated and accusing Members of trying to derail his law is not the way a minister should be presenting.”
Following discussions during the lunch adjournment, a compromise was agreed whereby Deputy Howell withdrew her proposal and Deputy Morel confirmed that he would not continue with the debate on the details of the new law until the sitting scheduled for 24 February, when the Constables’ amendment will also be debated.
At the start of the debate, Deputy Morel introduced the new law, saying it would replace a statute that was enacted in 1974 – “it’s the same age as I am,” he pointed out.
“It will be simpler, bring greater certainty, it will be fairer and it will bring [responsibility for] alcohol policy to this Assembly for the first time in history so it can be decided by a democratic body,” he said.
Simplicity would be achieved through reducing the current seven categories of licence to three – on-trade, off -trade and temporary events – Deputy Morel added, and greater fairness would end the current situation whereby a small café – Beresford Street Kitchen was the example he quoted – paid five times as much for its licence as a very large supermarket.
Deputy Alex Curtis said he had a “deep care” for the hospitality sector, but also that he had a series of questions and concerns, including the fear that the current complexity of categories would be replaced by a complexity of conditions, and the relative lack of transparency of the Gambling Commission compared with utility companies and arms-length organisations.
At the end of the debate, Deputy Bailhache was the only person to vote against the law, while Deputies Montfort Tadier and Karen Wilson abstained along with Constables Mezbourian and Philip Le Sueur.
