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SEVEN public bodies had their funding reduced this year to help the government’s Economy Department on budget, it has emerged. In 2025, the department had a savings target of £1.047 million, which Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel said was financed through “through a mixture of staff reductions, departmental efficiencies and reduced grants to arm’s-length organisations”. The organisations affected by the cuts included Visit Jersey, Jersey Sport, the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority, the Jersey Business Ltd, the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner, and Digital Jersey. A letter to scrutiny politicians from Deputy Morel showed that the biggest savings were as a result of staff reductions the previous year (£256,000) and cuts to Digital Jersey and the Information Commissioner (£250,000). Jersey Business saw its funding drop by £80,000, Locate Jersey by £70,000, Visit Jersey by £67,000, Jersey Sport by £49,000, and the JCRA by £30,000. Savings were also made through a £130,000 cut to the ‘Strategic Implementation Fund’, and a £60,000 reduction in money allocated towards creating an Intellectual Property framework. Deputy Morel said the department “fully delivered” on its target and was on track to meet a further £384,000 in savings next year, with no redundancies or redeployments required. He added that while no restructure was planned for 2026, his department had “already prepared in advance” to meet next year’s savings “in January 2026”. Despite the cuts, the Minister said the department’s flagship Better Business Support Package, worth £10 million, would continue unchanged next year, maintaining support for productivity and competitiveness “during the transition to a living wage”.
