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Privileges and Procedures Committee 10th November 2017

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KS/MH/325

PRIVILEGES AND PROCEDURES COMMITTEE (80th Meeting)

10th November 2017

PART A (Non-exempt)

All members  were  present, with the  exception of Deputy S.M. Brée of St. Clement , from whom apologies had been received.

Connétable L. Norman of St. Clement , Chairman Connétable D.W. Mezbourian of St. Lawrence Deputy J.A. Martin of St. Helier

Deputy K.C. Lewis of St. Saviour

Deputy S.Y. Mézec of St. Helier

Deputy S.M. Wickenden of St. Helier

In attendance -

K.L. Slack, Clerk to the Privileges and Procedures Committee Note:  The Minutes of this meeting comprise Part A only.

Elected  A1.  The Committee, with reference to its Minute No. A2 of 9th November 2017, Speaker and  recalled that it had expressed the wish to present comments on Senator P.F.C. Deputy   Ozouf 's amendment to Senator Sir P.M. Bailhache 's third amendment to the Chief Speaker of the  Minister's  Proposition  Elected  Speaker  and   Deputy  Speaker  of  the  States States  Assembly: selection and appointment' (P.84/2017).

Assembly:

selection and  The Committee was mindful that, if adopted, Senator Bailhache 's third amendment appointment  to P.84/2017 would render the original Proposition void and of no effect unless the (P.84/2017) -  majority of the people voting in a referendum on the question of whether the Bailiff third  should remain the President of the States had voted against the same. Senator amendment   Ozouf 's amendment to the amendment retained the requirement for a referendum, (P.84/2017  but proposed that the Proposition should not be implemented unless the majority of Amd (3)) –  the electorate – rather than the majority of those voting – had supported the retention amendment –  of the status quo.

comments.

465/1(213)  The Committee expressed a number of concerns in connexion with Senator Ozouf 's

amendment to the third amendment. It was of the view that the amendment contravened Council of Europe's Venice Commission code of good practice on referendums, which stated inter alia that it was advisable not to provide for approval by a minimum percentage of registered voters, as it risked involving a difficult political situation if the draft was adopted by a simple majority lower than the necessary threshold. If the change to an elected Speaker were to proceed because of the level of abstention, this could reduce public confidence in the States and further undermine the use of referendums to decide constitutional issues in Jersey.

The second concern of the Committee was that Senator Ozouf 's amendment had been lodged at a late stage, apparently without consideration of whether or not it was advisable to have a threshold and what the implications of such a threshold might be.

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80th Meeting 10.11.17

Lastly, the Committee recalled that the States Assembly had recently adopted the Referendum  (Jersey)  Law  2017,  which  provided  for  the  establishment  of  a Referendum Commission (the Commission') to advise on the wording of proposed referendum questions and to designate lead campaign groups in relation thereto. The members of the Commission were currently being appointed and the Committee was hopeful  that  the  Commission  would  be  established  in  the  near  future.   The Committee felt that the integrity of referendums in the Island would be improved by using the Commission to provide advice thereon.

Accordingly, the Committee was of the view that if the States Assembly wished to set conditions on the requirements for a referendum on the elected Speaker to be successful, this could be considered by the Commission in advance of the relevant Referendum Act being put to the States Assembly for a decision. The Committee felt that this would be preferable to a decision being made at this juncture.

The Committee approved draft Comments which reflected the foregoing views and requested the Committee Clerk to arrange for them to be presented to the States.

Elected  A2.  The Committee, with reference to its Minute No. A2 of 9th November 2017, Speaker and  recalled that it had expressed the wish to present comments on Senator P.F.C. Deputy   Ozouf 's fourth amendment to the Chief Minister's Proposition Elected Speaker and Speaker of the   Deputy Speaker of the States Assembly: selection and appointment' (P.84/2017). States

Assembly:  The  Committee  noted  that  Senator   Ozouf 's  fourth  amendment  to  P.84/2017 selection and  requested it to bring forward the necessary changes to the Standing Orders of the appointment  States  of  Jersey  to  enable  the  specially  constituted  review  panel,  which  was (P.84/2017) -  established to scrutinise the recommendations from the Independent Jersey Care fourth  Inquiry (IJCI'), to be mandated to scrutinise draft legislation arising from the amendment  Proposition and for that panel to be the relevant scrutiny panel for the purposes of (P.84/2017  calling in such legislation for scrutiny under Standing Order 72.

Amd (4)) –

comments.  The Committee felt that there were procedural complexities,  arising from this 465/1(213)  amendment, which it wished to bring to the attention of the States Assembly inter

alia the fact that the panel, which had been established to scrutinise the IJCI recommendations, was a review panel, established by the Chairmen's Committee under Standing Order 145A and not a scrutiny panel. Accordingly, it would not be able to call in legislation under Standing Order 72, without an amendment to that particular Standing Order. Further, Senator Ozouf 's amendment would have the effect of adding to the work of the review panel, without reference to the Chairmen's Committee.

The Committee was also mindful that the Chairmen's Committee could take the decision at any time to disband a review panel and, at the time of the election in May 2018, the current review panel would fall.

Consequently, the Committee was of the view that Senator Ozouf 's amendment would prove difficult to implement and approved draft Comments which set out its views thereon. It requested the Committee Clerk to arrange for the same to be presented to the States.