Hospitality Board

Summary

A request for information regarding the Hospitality Isle of Man Board, including terms of reference, membership, minutes, and the resignation of its chair, resulted in partial disclosure. The Department for Enterprise released the terms of reference and initial meeting minutes but withheld other documents citing that the board is a volunteer group and the information is held on its behalf, while also exempting personal details regarding the chair's resignation.

Key Facts

• The Hospitality Isle of Man Board is a volunteer group established by the industry with secretarial support from the Department for Enterprise.
• The Terms of Reference were drafted in 2024 and are published on the Business Isle of Man website.
• Current board membership is under review by the Interim Chair and scheduled for publication on 15 March 2025.
• Minutes from meetings after the first one are withheld because they have not been signed off and the Department holds them on behalf of the board.
• Information regarding the reasons for Jamie Lewis's resignation and related correspondence is withheld as personal information.

Data Disclosed

• 2025-02-05
• 2025-02-19
• 2024
• 15/3/2025
• 20240905
• 15/3/2024
• S8(2)(a)
• Section 25
• s25(b)(i)&(ii)

Exemptions Cited

• S8(2)(a) of the Act (Information held on behalf of another person)
• Section 25 of the Act (Absolutely exempt information - personal data)

Original Request

With the establishment, by the Department for Enterprise, of the Hospitality Isle of Man Board (hereafter the Hospitality Board), the hospitality trade was recently afforded an opportunity to work together to further initiatives and address concerns it perceives are hampering its business. I am concerned about it efficacy and progress, especially as the trade continues to criticise Government policy. Would you please supply me with: 1. The terms of reference of the Hospitality Board 2. The current membership of the Hospitality Board 3. The minutes of all meetings (DforE providing the secretariat for it, as confirmed by the Minister in the House of Keys, and therefore owning same) 4. The reasons for the recent resignation of Jamie Lewis as chair of the Hospitality Board 5. All correspondence (letters, emails, texts, WhatsApps etc) between the recently resigned chair of the Hospitality Board and the Department over the resignation 6. The cost to the taxpayer of the Hospitality Board, to include officer time and any other costs met from public funds. With thanks.

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: 4422270 19 February 2025

Dear ###

We write further to your request, received 5 February 2025, which states:

"With the establishment, by the Department for Enterprise, of the Hospitality Isle of Man Board (hereafter the Hospitality Board), the hospitality trade was recently afforded an opportunity to work together to further initiatives and address concerns it perceives are hampering its business.

I am concerned about it efficacy and progress, especially as the trade continues to criticise Government policy.

Would you please supply me with:

1. The terms of reference of the Hospitality Board

2. The current membership of the Hospitality Board

3. The minutes of all meetings (DforE providing the secretariat for it, as confirmed by the Minister in the House of Keys, and therefore owning same)

4. The reasons for the recent resignation of Jamie Lewis as chair of the Hospitality Board

5. All correspondence (letters, emails, texts, WhatsApps etc) between the recently resigned chair of the Hospitality Board and the Department over the resignation

6. The cost to the taxpayer of the Hospitality Board, to include officer time and any other costs met from public funds.

With thanks."

Our response to your request is as follows:

Before responding to the specific questions raised, it is important to emphasise that Hospitality Isle of Man has been established as a volunteer group by the industry itself, with an element of secretarial support provided by the Department for Enterprise, through Business Isle of Man.

The Terms of Reference for the Board was drafted in 2024, building on discussions around the opportunity for the various sectors to come together and discuss mutual areas of interest, and an open recruitment process was followed looking for volunteers who then also self-selected their chair.

1. The terms of reference of the Hospitality Board

This information is held due to it needing to be shared with all board members and is published on: https://www.businessisleofman.com/hospitality-isle-of-man/

1. The current membership of the Hospitality Board

The previous membership is published here: https://www.businessisleofman.com/media/00dddmop/hospitality-isle-of-man-minutes- 20240905.pdf.

However, the current membership is being reviewed by the Interim Chair following the last meeting of the board. The latest membership of the board will be updated and published on 15/3/2025.

1. The minutes of all meetings (DfE providing the secretariat for it, as confirmed by the Minister in the House of Keys, and therefore owning same)

The first meeting minutes are shared here: https://www.businessisleofman.com/media/00dddmop/hospitality-isle-of-man-minutes- 20240905.pdf.

The other meeting minutes have not yet been signed off by the Interim Chair or the board at this stage. This board is not of the Department, and we only provide secretariat services to the board, and the information is held for that purpose only.
The information we have is not ours, we simply hold it on behalf of the board and therefore S8(2)(a) of the Act applies and it is not information that we can release at this point, however, once approved, the minutes will be published by Hospitality IOM via the Business Isle of Man website on 15/3/2024.

Section 8: Right of access to information held by public authorities

S8(2)(a):

Whilst our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because it falls under S8(2)(a) of the act, which states:

In this Act, information is “held” by a public authority if it is held —
(a) by the public authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person.

1. The reasons for the recent resignation of Jamie Lewis as chair of the Hospitality Board

2. All correspondence (letters, emails, texts, WhatsApps etc) between the recently resigned chair of the Hospitality Board and the Department over the resignation

As an individual’s resignation is personal information, it falls under Section 25 of the act.

Section 25: Absolutely exempt information s25(b)(i)&(ii): Whilst our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide any of the information you have requested because it is absolutely exempt under section 25 of the Act (absolutely exempt personal information). The reasons why that exemption applies are that: • The Department for Enterprise is satisfied that the information amounts to personal data of which you are not the data subject; and • The Department for Enterprise is satisfied that disclosure of the information would contravene one of the data protection principles as set out at Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation as it applies in the Isle of Man pursuant to the Data Protection (Application of GDPR) Order 2018, namely that the Department for Enterprise can only disclose the information where it would be fair, lawful and meet one of the conditions for lawful processing in Article 6, and one of the conditions in Article 9 of the GDPR and Schedule 2 of the Implementing Regulations is met, and in this case, none of those conditions have been met.

1. The cost to the taxpayer of the Hospitality Board, to include officer time and any other costs met from public funds.

We do not collect this information however, there have been three meetings which have totalled 5.5 hours of officer support, where a maximum of three officers have been in attendance as non-voting board members or secretarial support. In addition, it is important to highlight that no other funds have been used to support Hospitality IOM. All of the board members, including the Chair are not financially supported to attend the meetings as they are all volunteers apart from the officers previously mentioned.

Please quote the reference number 4422270 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.

This response took two and a half hours to complete.