THE Island gets excellent value from the authority that regulates competition, according to its departing boss.

Bill Brown left his post at the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority yesterday and said that, with a team of nine, it carries out many of the functions that are done by multiple agencies in the UK. In August, Senator Ben Shenton called for £250,000 to be cut from the JCRA’s budget, saying that the authority was ‘an expensive luxury’ that had done nothing positive for the Jersey consumer. But Mr Brown, who is the subject of this week’s Saturday Interview, argues that the JCRA has provided Jersey excellent value for money as a single authority does a similar job in Jersey as Ofcom, Postcom, the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission do as four different bodies in the UK. Last year the JCRA received an income of £1.15m, of which £411,694 came from Economic Development and £564,565 from licence fees. Total expenditure equalled income and included £685,961 on salaries and staff costs and £286,580 on consultancy fees. Mr Brown, who will be succeeded in the position as executive director by US lawyer Chuck Webb, said that the Jersey model of having a single authority to regulate a variety of industries was one that others are starting to follow. He is moving to Hong Kong to work for multinational company Hutchison Whampoa ahead of the introduction of a competition law in the former British colony. The 48-year-old Scot is proud of what he and his team have achieve in his three years in charge. He said that there has been much unseen work done by the JCRA that has benefited Island consumers. ‘Since the introduction of the Competition Law, we have regularly had businesses coming to speak to us to ask for advice. Our aim is to prevent anti-competitive situations arising,’ he said. ‘Because they are confidential, those many discussions and outcomes never see the light of day.’