Grants

Summary

The requester asked for statistics on employee relocation incentive grants, including amounts spent, number of grants, and retention rates for the last financial year. The Department for Enterprise disclosed that detailed statistics are published annually in the Enterprise Act 2008 Annual Report, but withheld specific 2023/2024 data pending publication and confirmed that retention data is not held.

Key Facts

• Detailed statistics on relocation incentives are published annually in the Enterprise Act 2008 Annual Report.
• The 2023/2024 Annual Report is scheduled to be published on 12 November 2024.
• Grants under these incentives are paid to eligible businesses, not directly to individuals.
• Information regarding how many recipients stayed on the Isle of Man is not held by the Department.
• The Department applied a qualified exemption for the unpublished 2023/2024 report and a practical exemption for the retention data.

Data Disclosed

• 2024-10-01
• 2024-10-14
• 2023/2024
• 12th of November
• 6 weeks
• 4166273

Exemptions Cited

• Section 41 of the Act (Qualified exemption)
• Section 11(3)a of the Act (Practical exemption)

Original Request

Hi I would like information on the amount of money spend on employee relocation incentive grants given out in the last full financial tax year, how many grants were given out and how much in £ was given out and if possible how many of these people have stayed living on the isle of man. Thank you

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator 1st Floor, St Georges Court Upper Church Street, Douglas Isle of Man IM1 1EX

Telephone: (01624 686400) Website: https://www.iomdfenterprise.im/

Our ref: 4166273 14 October 2024

Dear ###,

We write further to your request, received 1 October 2024, which states:

"Hi I would like information on the amount of money spend on employee relocation incentive grants given out in the last full financial tax year, how many grants were given out and how much in £ was given out and if possible how many of these people have stayed living on the isle of man. Thank you"

On the 1 October 2024, we sought clarification on the scope of the request to which you stated:

“Hi yes I would like the information on the relocation grant from the link you sent. I would also like the information on any other grant that would help people move to the Isle of Man from anywhere in the world. Thank you”

Our response to your request is as follows:

Detailed statistics on the relocation incentives (Employee Relocation Incentive, Graduate Role Incentive and Seasonal Worker Incentive) are published annually by the Department for Enterprise (“the Department”) in the Enterprise Act 2008 Annual Report which is laid before Tynwald.

Previous reports can be found here.

The Department is applying a qualified exemption under Section 41 of the Act to the information requested, the Department intends to lay the Annual Report for the financial year 2023/2024 at the December sitting of Tynwald Court, this means that the report will be published on the Tynwald Register of Business, which can be found here https://www.tynwald.org.im/rob. The document should be published 6 weeks before the relevant sitting, the Department wishes to advise therefore that the document should be published on the 12th of November.

In relation to assessing how many of these people have stayed on-Island, while the Department’s aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Department will apply a practical exemption in accordance with Section 11(3)a of the Act as the information is not held.

Further information on the various relocation incentives, together with other support schemes administered by the Department, is available here. For clarity, any grants payable under these incentives can only be paid to eligible businesses, not directly to individuals, and only become claimable after the employees who were the subject of any application have worked continuously for the required period of time and who remain in employment

You may wish to contact Cabinet Office for information regarding staff relocation packages, and Treasury for information regarding the National Insurance Holiday Scheme.

Please quote the reference number 4166273 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.