Enterprise Development Scheme

Summary

The requester asked for names of companies, directors, and beneficiaries receiving Enterprise Development Scheme funding, along with campaign costs. The authority disclosed eight company names and directed the requester to the Companies Registry for director details, but withheld beneficiary information and future company lists citing exemptions.

Key Facts

• Eight companies were disclosed as having received funding: Nimbus Medical Ltd, E-Sign Ltd, Scout 4 Ltd, Cortech Healthcare Ltd, Roots Beverage Company, Carrera Digital, WESPA, and X-Labs.
• Remaining company names are scheduled for publication in the Enterprise Act 2008 Annual Reports for 2017/18 and 2018/19.
• Director names were not provided directly but referred to the online Companies Registry.
• Beneficiary information was withheld as absolutely exempt personal data.
• The Department determined that maintaining the exemption for future company names outweighed the public interest in immediate disclosure.

Data Disclosed

• 11 jobs
• April 2016
• 2018-06-27
• 2018-07-25
• 8 businesses
• October 2018
• 2017/18
• 2018/19
• 16 months
• section 41
• section 20
• section 25

Exemptions Cited

• Section 41 (Information intended for future publication)
• Section 20 (Information reasonably accessible elsewhere)
• Section 25 (Personal data)

Original Request

I request today, the names of each company that was subject to the Enterprise scheme funding whereby 11 jobs were created since April 2016. Could you also provide us with the directors/beneficiaries of each of these companies that had opted to use the scheme. A breakdown of funding allocation to each of the companies that had applied (figures). What efforts/campaigns have been conducted to maximise the awareness of this fund and the costs that came with those campaigns.

Data Tables (1)

Data Tables (reformatted)

Full Response Text

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

Telephone: (01624 685375) Website: www.gov.im/ded Email: steven.tallach@gov.im

Our ref: 514142 6 July 2018

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 27 June 2018 and which states:

"I request today, the names of each company that was subject to the Enterprise scheme funding whereby 11 jobs were created since April 2016. Could you also provide us with the directors/beneficiaries of each of these companies that had opted to use the scheme. A breakdown of funding allocation to each of the companies that had applied (figures). What efforts/campaigns have been conducted to maximise the awareness of this fund and the costs that came with those campaigns."

Our response to your request is as follows: “names of each company that was subject to the Enterprise scheme funding whereby 11 jobs were created since April 2016” The names of 8 of the businesses that have received funding are already publicly available. These are: Company Nimbus Medical Ltd E-Sign Ltd Scout 4 Ltd Cortech Healthcare Ltd Roots Beverage Company Carrera Digital WESPA X-Labs The remaining businesses which received support in 2017/18 will be listed in the Enterprise Act 2008 Annual Report 2017/18, which will be published in October 2018, and the businesses which received support in 2018/19 will be listed in the Enterprise Act 2008 Annual Report 2018/19, which will be published in 2019. The information is therefore exempt from disclosure under section 41 of the Act as it is held with a view Page 2 of 6 to being published at a future date and in all the circumstances it is reasonable that the information be withheld from disclosure until that time. As section 41 is a qualified exemption, it is subject to a public interest test. The public interest must be something that is of serious concern and benefit to the public at large. Factors in favour of disclosing the information include: • public interest in transparency of issues of financial management and accountability. Factors in favour of maintaining the exemption include: • public authorities should be able to manage their own public affairs; and • paragraph 14(2) of the Enterprise Development Scheme 2015 requires that the Department must report to Tynwald the names of the businesses that have received support under the Scheme in the previous financial year. There is therefore already a statutory requirement that the Department makes the information publicly available on an annual basis. In assessing the weight to be attributed to each of the factors in favour of disclosing the information and maintaining the exemption, the Department for Enterprise has taken the following into consideration: • the severity of the impact of the prejudice: the Department has agreed with businesses that their names will be made public in the Enterprise Act 2008 Annual Reports. The businesses that have received support are not expecting their names to be published prior to this, and to do so may put off other businesses from seeking support from the Department; • the age of the information: the information is current as the businesses have obtained support from the Department at most, 16 months ago; • how far disclosure would further the public interests identified above: disclosure will not further the public interests above significantly as the names of the companies will be released, as per the provisions of the Enterprise Development Scheme 2015; • would disclosure correct misinformation?: there is no misinformation in the public domain in relation to the names of businesses supported. Finally, no prejudice from disclosure has already occurred to the degree that further disclosure won’t materially affect the prejudice already caused. In taking all of these factors into account the Department for Enterprise determines that the factors in favour of maintaining the exemption outweigh the factors in favour of disclosing the information.

“the directors…of each of these companies” While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under section 20 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you, whether free of charge or on payment of a fee. The names of directors of each of the companies are available from the Companies Registry. The Registry’s search facility is available online here: Page 3 of 6 https://services.gov.im/ded/services/companiesregistry/companysearch.iom “the beneficiaries…of each of these companies” While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information on the beneficiaries of the companies 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 under the Data Protection Act 2002. The Department for Enterprise is satisfied that disclosure of the information would contravene one of the data protection principles, namely that the Department for Enterprise can only disclose the information where it would be fair, lawful and meet one of the conditions in schedule 2. “Breakdown of funding…” While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the information is exempt under section 30 of the Act, as disclosure would be likely to prejudice the economic interests of the island, for the reasons set out below. The Department is responsible for providing financial support to business for the purpose of growing the economy. If the Department were to release a breakdown of funding in response to information requests this would be likely to: a) put off businesses applying for financial support from the Island and would therefore be harmful to the economic interests of the Island. The fact that the exact level of support the business has obtained will be placed in the public domain may put off potential applicants; and b) be harmful to the ability of Spark Impact, the Scheme Manager for the Enterprise Development Scheme, to agree loans and equity deals with businesses. Spark Impact has informed us that the information in the public domain about the Scheme already has weakened Spark’s ability to negotiate good value deals. As section 30 is a qualified exemption, it is subject to a public interest test. The public interest must be something that is of serious concern and benefit to the public at large. Factors in favour of disclosing the information include: • release of the information will promote public understanding and informed debate; and • accountability for the spending of public funds and ensuring that public money is being used effectively and Departments are getting value for money when purchasing goods and services. Factors in favour of maintaining the exemption include: • the need to protect the commercial interests of the private sector, which plays an important role in the general health of the economy; Page 4 of 6 • the release of individual amounts of loan and equity support provided to business may put off businesses from seeking support; • the release of individual amounts of loan and equity support will undermine the process of loan and equity support by providing applicant businesses with information which allows them to negotiate higher levels of support; and • paragraph 14(2) of the Enterprise Development Scheme 2015 requires that the Department must report to Tynwald information concerning the economic benefits of financial assistance given and the value of financial assistance invested through the Scheme – specifically the total amount of funding provided to the businesses for the financial year. There is therefore a statutory requirement that the Department makes information relating to the economic benefit of financial assistance on an annual basis. In assessing the weight to be attributed to each of the factors in favour of disclosing the information and maintaining the exemption, the Department for Enterprise has taken the following into consideration: • the severity of the impact of the prejudice: disclosure of the individual amounts of funding will be likely to dissuade businesses from applying for support • the age of the information: the information is current as the businesses have obtained support from the Department at most two years’ ago; • how far disclosure would further the public interests identified above: as set out above, information relating to the total amount of funding under the Enterprise Development Scheme and the number of businesses supported has already been released, and will continue to be released, so disclosure of individual amounts is not necessary • would disclosure correct misinformation? There is no misinformation relating to the individual amounts of support that needs to be corrected Once again, no prejudice from disclosure has already occurred to the degree that further disclosure won’t materially affect the prejudice already caused. In taking all of these factors into account the Department for Enterprise determines that the factors in favour of maintaining the exemption outweigh the factors in favour of disclosing the information. However some further information on funding is available on page 10 of the Enterprise Act 2008 Annual Report 2016/17 available here: http://www.tynwald.org.im/business/opqp/sittings/Tynwald%2020162018/2017-GD- 0071.pdf Further information is also available in a response by the Minister for Enterprise to a Tynwald question in June 2018 here: http://www.tynwald.org.im/business/OPHansardIndex1618/2232.pdf “What efforts/campaigns have been conducted to maximise the awareness of this fund and the costs that came with those campaigns." The Department does not have a separate budget to market the Enterprise Development Scheme. The only directly attributable marketing costs to the Enterprise Page 5 of 6 Development Scheme are for the creation and printing of the EDS factsheets and this cost is only approximately £150. The Department promotes the Enterprise Development Scheme via its various web pages (such as gov.im, and whereyoucan.com), social media platforms, press releases for individual deal completions and company updates, approximately 25 on-Island events (such as ISLEXPO and Employment & Skills) and during the off-Island events attended by the Department’s Agency staff and Business Development Managers. Spark also undertakes marketing activity which is funded as part of their fixed fee.

Please quote the reference number 514142 in any future communications.

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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.
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I will now close your request as of this date.

Page 6 of 6 Yours sincerely