Hardship fund will be flexible, says P&R boss

For now, however, the committee remains in an information gathering stage while they assess the fast-evolving situation.

Deputy St Pier recognised Guernsey’s economy was vulnerable to the developing situation.

‘What we have to recognise is that our economy will be impacted in the same way as economies elsewhere,’ he said.

‘This is a significant and largely a demand side shock to the economy in terms of the loss of demand as people are no longer coming here to visit or are doing less of what they might usually have done.

‘It also might have a supply side-effect as well, although probably less so due to the nature of what we do as an economy.’

He said preventing long-term damage to Guernsey’s economy was essential and suggested the hardship fund could help those with cash-flow issues to stay in business.

‘That, inevitably, is going to have a knock-on impact on individuals’ income, particularly on small businesses and sole traders and as soon as they’ve got impact on incomes it can impact on cash-flow and that’s when we’re talking about long-term damage to the economic infrastructure. What we’re looking to do is to understand the scale of that risk by engaging with industry representatives and we will then decide something that enables us to respond to that.

‘We need to develop something that is appropriate for our community and for our business sector but which is also flexible because this is clearly a rapidly dynamic and changing situation.’

To this end, Deputy St Pier said the self-employed and sole traders would be eligible for sick pay while they self-isolate.

The States is also reviewing its decision-making process, said Deputy St Pier, to increase the speed at which it can respond to the developing pandemic.

‘The step we’re putting in place now is really replicating what we did in relation to Brexit planning, to no-deal planning.

‘In essence this is a tier below that, which enables us to work between the committee system of decision-making and the CCA when something isn’t quite an emergency and we still need to make a decision but we can’t necessarily wait until the next committee meeting.’

Meetings of the States of Deliberation were also under review, he said.

‘We are also looking at the laws around the States so again decisions can be made without everyone being gathered in the same place, which is at current a requirement of the rules,’ said Deputy St Pier.