News

Population policy fails to meet expectations

​The Migration and Population Review Panel has published its report examining the Council of Ministers' proposed Common Population Policy.

The Panel's report concludes that the document lodged does not constitute a policy, provides little tangible action on population issues and does not fulfill the commitments made by the States Assembly or provide any certainty for Islanders, for whom this policy is long-awaited.

The Panel accepts that forecasts for population planning should be informed by robust data which it has been told is not yet available, however, it is concerned that the document does not tackle the challenging issues it raises. Instead, it leaves difficult decision-making and any commitment for action to future Governments.

The Panel has found that a further four-year wait for population planning assumptions to be made is unacceptable. It has recommended that the Council of Ministers bring forward planning assumptions for population and net migration targets as soon as possible in the next term of office, and no later than December 2023.

A full list of the Panel's key findings and recommendations can be found in its report.

This report completes the first part of the Panel's two distinct projects established to review migration and population propositions put forward by the Council of Ministers. The second will examine the migration controls which will be implemented to support the aims of the population policy.

The proposed policy will be debated by the States Assembly next week, during the States Meeting commencing Tuesday 8 February.

Chair of the Migration and Population Review Panel, Senator Steve Pallett, said: "We are disappointed that what began as a top priority for the Council of Ministers four years ago has resulted in a document with no tangible solutions to tackling population management in Jersey.

"We believe that what has been proposed is neither what the States Assembly initially agreed to or what the public expected for such an important issue affecting the entire Island. It is future Governments that will have to address these challenges head-on and ensure that the next iteration of the population policy is not, like this one, merely aspirational."