Introduction
The rapid uptake of agile working over the past year and a half has contributed to the ever increasing blurring of lines between home and work, and the question of where the workplace starts and ends. It is worth remembering that for most scenarios an employee’s workplace does not need to be an office or the business premises of the employer. It can, in appropriate circumstances, encompass anywhere the employee is working.
This blurring gives rise to a number of regulatory and legal risks, which we have previously discussed (on Dealing with Requests for Flexible Working under Jersey and Guernsey Law, The Covid-19 Balancing Act for Regulated Businesses in Jersey and Guernsey, and Fit and Proper - How to Manage Employee Breaches if You Are a Regulated Business). One of the potential issues arising from having staff working from home that has so far not seen any discussion in the Channel Islands is around dawn raids.
Dawn Raids
The regulators in both Islands have the power to carry out a “dawn raid” in appropriate cases, where they are seeking to carry out investigatory or enforcement steps against regulated financial services businesses. The primary powers are contained in the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998 (FSJL 1998) and the Banking Business (Jersey) Law 1991 (BBJL 1991) in Jersey and The Financial Services Business (Enforcement Powers) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2020 in Guernsey.
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