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Privileges and Procedures Committee 20th February 2019

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PRIVILEGES AND PROCEDURES COMMITTEE (24th Meeting)

(Business conducted by electronic mail)

20th February 2019

PART A (Non-Exempt)

All members were present, with the exception of Deputy S.M. Wickenden of St. Helier and Deputy M.R. Le Hegarat of St. Helier , from whom apologies had been received.

Deputy R. Labey of St. Helier , Chairman

Connétable A.S. Crowcroft of St. Helier

Connétable C. H. Taylor of St. John

Deputy J.M. Maçon of St. Saviour (not present for item A2) Deputy C.S. Alves of St. Helier

In attendance -

L.M. Hart , Deputy Greffier of the States

K.L. Slack, Clerk to the Privileges and Procedures Committee

Note:  The Minutes of this meeting comprise Part A only.

Public  A1.  The Committee, with reference to its Minute No. A3 of 5th February 2019, Elections  recalled that it had expressed the wish to present a comment on the Proposition of (Expenditure   Deputy J.H. Young of St. Brelade Public Elections (Expenditure and Donations) and Donations)  (Jersey) Law 2014: proposed amendments' (P.6/2019), which was due to be debated by (Jersey) Law  the States Assembly on 26th February 2019.

2014: proposed

amendments  The Committee received a draft comment, which expressed its support for Deputy (P.6/2019) –  Young's Proposition and reminded Members that it had established a Sub-Committee comments.  to  review  and  implement  the  recommendations  made  by  the  Commonwealth 459/99(1)  Parliamentary Association's Election Observers Mission in 2018, one of which had

been that consideration should be given to provide for and undertake a systematic scrutiny of all financial declarations submitted by candidates and political parties and make public the result of such scrutiny, in order to enhance transparency of campaign finances as stated in Article 7.3 of the UN Convention against Corruption.

The comment indicated that work needed to be undertaken with the Judicial Greffe, who were responsible for this aspect of the election process, because in the Committee's view, the oversight was currently insufficient and recent events had demonstrated that there  were  failings  with  the  way  in  which  the  Law  had  been  implemented  and administered to date. In the United Kingdom, responsibility for assessing the validity of candidates' expenses sat with the Electoral Commission, which had the vires to take legal action against those who do not adhere to the rules and the Committee had considered whether the responsibility for the administration of the Law could be removed from the Judicial Greffe and a local Electoral Commission established.

The Committee approved the draft Comment and instructed the Deputy Greffier to

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arrange for its presentation to the States.

Public  A2.  The Committee, with reference to its Minute No. A3 of 5th February 2019, Elections  recalled that it had expressed the wish to present a comment on the Proposition of (Expenditure   Deputy J.M. Maçon of St. Saviour Public Elections (Expenditure and Donations) and Donations)  (Jersey) Law 2014: proposed review' (P.7/2019), which was due to be debated by the (Jersey) Law  States Assembly on 26th February 2019.

2014: proposed

review  The Committee received a draft comment, which expressed its support for Deputy (P.7/2019) –  Maçon's Proposition and was almost identical to the comment which it had decided to comments.  present in relation to the Proposition of Deputy J.H. Young of St. Brelade , as set out in 459/99(1)  Minute No. A1 of the current meeting.

Accordingly, the Committee approved the draft Comment and instructed the Deputy Greffier to arrange for its presentation to the States.