Skip to main content

Chief Minister and Chairman of Comité des Connétables: monthly meetings (P.51/2013) – comments.

The official version of this document can be found via the PDF button.

The below content has been automatically generated from the original PDF and some formatting may have been lost, therefore it should not be relied upon to extract citations or propose amendments.

STATES OF JERSEY

CHIEF MINISTER AND CHAIRMAN OF COMITÉ DES CONNÉTABLES: MONTHLY MEETINGS (P.51/2013) – COMMENTS

Presented to the States on 13th May 2013 by the Comité des Connétable s

STATES GREFFE

2013   Price code: A  P.51 Com.

COMMENTS

It is true that the Chairman has, since the inception of Ministerial government, been invited to attend meetings of the Council of Ministers and is thus able to comment – but not to vote – on matters which may impact on the parishes.

Attending the Council's meetings does enable the Chairman to hear at first hand from all Ministers and so to comment, and also to inform the Comité, of matters which may be relevant to the parish administrations. Irrespective of future reform of the States Assembly, it must be for the Council of Ministers to decide whether to continue to extend this invitation.

The proposition is that instead, or perhaps in addition, monthly meetings are held between  the  Chairman  and  the  Chief  Minister  to  ensure  effective  lines  of communication remain open. This would seem merely to add to the workload, as relevant papers and minutes will have to be kept, and it is not clear that there will be any  benefits.  The  Chief  Minister  will  be  reporting  on  matters  which  are  the responsibility of individual Ministers and the Chairman can only express the views of other Connétable s as the position carries no authority for decision making on behalf of other parishes.

What is of more value is the face-to-face dialogue which the Comité enjoys from time to time with the Council of Ministers and the opportunity to invite individual Ministers to address the Comité on matters of specific concern. There is no reason why this should not continue, irrespective of future reform, and therefore the Comité sees no merit in the proposition.

Page - 2

P.51/2013 Com.