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WQ.330/2021
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY THE CONNÉTABLE OF ST. JOHN
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 5th JULY 2021
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 12th JULY 2021
Question
Will the Minister advise –
- the dates of all Scientific and Technical Advisory Cell (S.T.A.C.) meetings held between 29th March and 5th July 2021;
- whether the minutes from this time period have all been agreed by the Cell within 7 days of the meeting in question and how many were challenged during this 7-day period, if any;
- what action, if any, he has undertaken since his answer to Written Question 305/2021 to publish the outstanding S.T.A.C. minutes;
- whether he has requested that the Chair publish the outstanding minutes within a specified deadline, and if not, whether he will do so; and
- when he expects the S.T.A.C. minutes for meetings for April, May and June to be published?
Answer
Scheduling meetings of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Cell (STAC) is the responsibility of the Chair, but I understand that meetings have continued to be held on a weekly basis on each Monday during April, May and June (other than the 31 May bank holiday week). I believe that comments from members of STAC regarding draft minutes are generally received within seven days of the draft minutes being circulated, but that settling the draft can sometimes take two or three weeks if facts need to be verified or comments substantiated. Since my answer to Written Question 305/2021 (tabled 28 June), the Director General for Strategic Policy, Planning and Performance has been asked on occasions before and since to seek to expedite the publication of further sets of minutes. Specific deadlines have not been set given the risk that this could lead to patient care being delayed or clinical governance matters being deferred, and in any event there is an ongoing need to protect the safe space for STAC to discuss live issues whilst matters remain policy under development for variable periods of time (as mentioned in the answer to Written Question 175/2021), but the need to seek to improve the flow of minutes through to publication has been emphasised. Further sets of minutes up to 7 June 2021 (61st Meeting) have now been published on the gov.je site.