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WQ.154/2024
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
BY DEPUTY R.S. KOVACS OF ST. SAVIOUR
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 22nd APRIL 2024 ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 29th APRIL 2024
Question
Further to Written Question 303/2023, and the Council of Ministers commitment to increasing transparency, will the Chief Minister consider publishing the Cost of Living Strategy agenda and minutes and if not, why not?”
Answer
The position outlined in Written Question 303/2023 remains applicable under the new Government.
As outlined in 2023, the minutes are kept for internal record keeping and to record actions and are not published. This is to provide a confidential space in which to explore ideas and develop policy. Ministers are then accountable in the Assembly for their actions. Minutes of the group are not published in order to maintain a confidential safe space that provides for frank, candid and open discussions between Ministers, including considering sensitive matters around economic policy and the development of fiscal policy. Ministers and officers must be at liberty to express their views, without being unduly influenced by the publication of minutes, and introducing an observed element to the decisionmaking process could have an impact on the content and nature of discussions. This is the same treatment applied to Part B Council of Minister’s minutes.