TOURISM (AMENDMENT) BILL
Explanatory and financial memorandum
INTRODUCTION
1. This Explanatory and Financial Memorandum has been prepared by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (“the Department”) in order to assist the reader of the Bill and to help inform debate on it. It does not form part of the Bill and has not been endorsed by the Assembly.
2. The Memorandum needs to be read in conjunction with the Bill. It is not, and is not meant to be, a comprehensive description of the Bill. So where a clause or part of a clause or schedule does not seem to require an explanation or comment, none is given.
BACKGROUD AND POLICY OBJECTIVES
3. The Bill makes a number of amendments to the Tourism ( Northern Ireland) Order 1992 (“the Tourism Order”). These were generated from a number of sources including previous engagement with key stakeholders.
4. The Bill will reduce the frequency of Northern Ireland Tourist Board (“NITB”) statutory inspections of tourist accommodation from an annual basis to once every four years. The Bill also makes provision for tourism accommodation providers to make a return to NITB in the years between statutory inspections. This will ensure that establishments continue to comply with the minimum standards required by legislation and thereby underpin the system of statutory inspections. These changes represent a positive reduction in the regulatory burden placed on tourist accommodation providers.
5. The Bill will make provision for the transfer of responsibility for tourist accommodation grants from Invest NI to NITB. It will also to change the mechanism whereby the chairman of NITB is appointed (this change will facilitate the appointment of a chairman by external competition rather than from among the Board members).
CONSULTATION
6. On 2 July 2009 the Department launched a 12 week public consultation on proposals for amending the Tourism Order. The consultation exercise was carried out using the Office of First and deputy First Minister Guidance on the issue of consultation documents and was issued to those on the list in that document. In addition, m ore than 2,000 tourism related individuals and organisations were consulted. Responses received were primarily from Local Authorities and the tourism industry.
7. The proposal to change the frequency of NITB statutory inspections of tourist accommodation from an annual basis to once every four years attracted 18 objections while the proposal to change the mechanism whereby the chairman of NITB is appointed met with unanimous approval.
8. The proposal to transfer responsibility for tourist accommodation grants from Invest NI was not included in the public consultation exercise referred to above. However this proposal was consulted on as part of a six week public consultation on the Independent Review of Economic Policy which commenced on 5 October 2009.
OPTIONS CONSIDERED
9. A number of options were considered on respect of changing the frequency of statutory inspections of tourist accommodation. Doing nothing was not considered to be acceptable. Complete deregulation was also considered however this was also considered to be unacceptable as feedback from the tourism industry clearly indicated that statutory inspection has played an important role in ensuring a minimum standard of tourist accommodation in Northern Ireland. The preferred option is reflected in the changes identified in this Bill.
10. A number of options were also considered in respect of transferring responsibility for tourist accommodation grants from Invest NI. Doing nothing was not considered to be acceptable. The preferred option was that provision be made for the transfer of responsibility to NITB. A key statutory function of NITB is the encouragement of tourism in Northern Ireland. In addition, NITB already has the statutory power to provide grant assistance for non accommodation tourism projects under Part III of the Tourism Order.
11. Doing nothing was not considered to be acceptable in respect of the mechanism for appointing the chairman of NITB. The Tourism Order currently states that the Minister is required to appoint a chairman from among the Board members of NITB. This in effect means that the position cannot be advertised with the aim of appointing a chairman directly to the Board. The preferred option was therefore to remove the requirement that the chairman must be appointed from among the Board members. The benefits of this include:
(i) permitting the chairman of NITB to be directly appointed by the Minister via external open competition . By making the appointments process truly open to competition the public’s confidence will be enhanced;
(ii) it is totally consistent with guidance provided by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments for Northern Ireland ; and
(iii) it is consistent with the legal mechanisms whereby chairs are appointed to the other Non Departmental Public Bodies (NDPB) in the DETI family, ie the General Consumer Council NI, Health and Safety Executive NI and Invest NI.
OVERVIEW
12. The bill contains 6 clauses and 1 schedule.
COMMENTARY ON CLAUSES
Clause 1 – Frequency of Statutory Inspections
13. This clause amends Article 13 of the Tourism Order to require the statutory inspection of a tourist accommodation establishment to take place every four years. It also requires a subsequent statutory inspection to take place in the 48 th calendar month following the date of issue of a certificate. A certificate is awarded to a tourist establishment upon completion of a satisfactory statutory inspection. The clause also enables the Department to substitute any other period for the four year period. This latter change is subject to approval by the Assembly as it involves amending primary legislation.
Clause 2 –Statutory reviews of certified tourist establishments
14. This clause inserts a new Article 14A into the Tourism Order to provide for statutory reviews between statutory inspections. These statutory reviews are to be instigated by NITB, at intervals decided by NITB. This is of particular importance in the first four years of the new system as NITB will need to inspect establishments in each of the first four years so as to put the current stock of tourist establishments onto four different cycles of statutory inspections.
15. Article 15 of the Tourism Order currently provides for revocation of a certificate on a statutory inspection. Article 15(1) is amended to extend these provisions to apply equally to revocation on a statutory review.
16. The clause also inserts a new Article 17A to make provision for the revocation of a certificate if there is a failure to make the return when required to do so. It closely follows existing revocation procedures.
17. The remaining amendments in this clause apply Articles 18 (review) and 19 (appeal) of the Tourism Order to decisions to revoke under Article 17A. These provisions automatically apply to a decision to revoke under Article 15(1) as amended.
Clause 3 – Imposition of conditions on inspection other than statutory inspection
18. This clause amends Article 16 of the Tourism Order and enables an officer of NITB to amend or add to the conditions of a certificate on an inspection other than a statutory inspection.
Clause 4 –Financial assistance to provide or improve tourist accommodation
19. This clause permits NITB to grant assist tourist accommodation and provides for the transfer of certain assets and liabilities from Invest NI to NITB. As a consequence of this section 3(4) of the Industrial Development Act ( Northern Ireland) 2002 (c. 1) is repealed.
Clause 5 –Appointment of chairman of Northern Ireland Tourist Board
20. Schedule 1 to the Tourism Order provides that the Board of NITB shall consist of not more than 9 members and that the chairman of the Board shall be appointed by the Minister from among the Board members. This precludes the direct appointment of the chairman via external open competition. This clause amends Schedule 1 to the Tourism Order so that the Minister is no longer required to appoint the chairman from among the Board members.
Clause 6 –Short title and commencement
21. This clause allows the Department to bring the various clauses of the Bill into operation on a day or days to be appointed by commencement
Schedule 1 –Transfer to the Tourist Board of certain assets and liabilities of InvestNorthern Ireland
22. This schedule provides for the transfer of certain assets and liabilities from Invest NI to NITB and is a consequence of the amendment made to Article 11 by clause 4 of the Bill which gives NITB the power to grant assist tourist accommodation.
FINACIAL EFFECTS OF THE BILL
23. The change from annual statutory inspections to statutory inspections taking place every four years will lead to a reduction in costs for NITB. There will also be a reduction in costs for tourist accommodation providers as the fee charged for a statutory inspection will only be paid once every four years rather than annually as at present.
24. The transfer of responsibility for grant assisting tourist accommodation from Invest NI to NITB would in effect be a transfer of responsibilities from one DETI NDPB to another DETI NDPB. There would not therefore be any additional financial implications associated with the transfer.
25. The change in procedure in respect of the appointment of the chairman of NITB will also be cost neutral.
HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
26. The Department considers the provisions in the Bill to be compatible with the Convention on Human Rights.
EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT
27. As a result of equality impact screening carried out by the Department it is not considered that the Bill will not have any adverse or negative impact on any of the sections of the community specified in section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
SUMMARY OF THE REGULATORY IMPACT ASSESSMENT
28. Consideration of the regulatory impact of the changes in the Bill Assessment has shown that no new regulatory or financial burden is being proposed. Indeed, the change from annual statutory inspections to statutory inspections every four years should lead to a reduction in the regulatory burden placed upon tourist accommodation businesses. This is consistent with the Government’s Better Regulation policy which seeks to reduce the regulatory burden on business where possible.
LEGISLATIVE COMPETENCE
29. The Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment had made the following statement under section 9 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998:
“In my view the Tourism (Amendment) Bill ( Northern Ireland) would be within the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly.”