Meetings of the States in 2006

STATES OF JERSEY

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MEETINGS OF THE STATES IN 2006

Lodged au Greffe on 20th September 2005 by the Privileges and Procedures Committee

STATES GREFFE

PROPOSITION

THE STATES are asked to decide whether they are of opinion

to a g ree to suspend Standing Orders 4(1) and 5(1C) as necessary, and –

( a) to agree that the Assembly as reconstituted after the elections for Senator and Deputy should

meet –

(i ) o n M onday 5th December 2005 for the purpose of electing a Chief Minister designate;

(i i) o n T hursday 8th December 2005 for the purpose of electing the Chairman of the Privileges

and Procedures Committee, Ministers, the Chairmen of the Public Accounts Committee and the Chairmen of the Scrutiny Panels; and

(i ii ) o n T uesday 13th December 2005 for the purpose of electing the members of the Privileges

and  Procedures  and  Public  Accounts Committees,  and  the  members of the  Scrutiny Panels;

(b ) th a t in the year 2006 the States should meet on the days listed in Column  1 in the table below, with

the meeting to continue on the day shown in Column  2, and if necessary the day in Column  3, i consideration of the public business set down for the meeting cannot be completed on the first day and second day –

Tuesday 18th July Wednesday 19th July Thursday 20th July Tuesday 12th September Wednesday 13th September Tuesday 19th September Tuesday 26th September Wednesday 27th September Tuesday 3rd October Tuesday 10th October Wednesday 11th October Tuesday 17th October Tuesday 24th October Wednesday 25th October Tuesday 31st October Tuesday 7th November Wednesday 8th November Tuesday 14th November Tuesday 21st November Wednesday 22nd November Tuesday 28th November Tuesday 5th December Wednesday 6th December Tuesday 12th December

PRIVILEGES AND PROCEDURES COMMITTEE

REPORT

Paragraph (a) of the proposition refers to the proposed first 3 meetings of the new States. It is fully compatible with the provisions contained within the new draft Standing Orders of the States of Jersey (P.162/2005 refers), which in turn follow previous decisions taken by the Assembly. As can be seen the selection of the Chief Minister will take place on the day that new members are sworn in (which is, of course, already 12 days after the Deputies' elections) as it is essential that the appointment process for the new Council of Ministers starts as soon as possible to avoid any period with no identifiable government' in the Island. When reviewing paragraph (a), members may wish to note that the 2 additional members of the Chairmen's Committee who are not ex officio members (i.e. the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and the Chairmen of the 4 Scrutiny Panels) will be appointed on Tuesday 17th January 2006. In arriving at this recommendation, the Committee took account of both the volume of business to be conducted before the Christmas break and the implications of delaying the constitution of the Chairmen's Committee. It concluded, on balance, that the operation of the Scrutiny function would not be affected. Indeed, nothing would prevent individual Scrutiny Panels from considering and finalizing their initial draft programmes of work prior to 17th January 2006.

In considering the matter of the dates for States meetings in 2006 the Privileges and Procedures Committee reflected upon the success of the arrangements put in place for the current year following the adoption of P.181/2004. It concluded that the current system, proposed originally by Deputy M.F. Dubras, had proved to be effective in that it had allowed Committees, individual members and Departments to plan with a greater degree of certainty. Certainly the Committee perceives that a majority of members have been broadly supportive of the arrangements.

Of course, 2006 will bring with it a period of unprecedented change with the introduction of the ministerial system of government and the Committee acknowledges that the demands of the new system may ultimately require that the system of meeting dates be changed in the medium to longer term. For example, the Privileges and Procedures Committee acknowledges that additional meeting days on a Thursday tend to be frowned upon under the existing system as it has been a preferred meeting day for a number of Committees. Although the dates on and the frequency with which the future Council of Ministers will meet has yet to be finalized, it may well be the case that this issue becomes less significant as the ministerial system develops. In the short term, however, the Committee considers that it would be appropriate to continue with an established, successful system of meeting and continuation days until such time as it becomes clear that the ministerial system of government would function more efficiently with an alternative arrangement.

There are no additional financial and manpower implications arising from this proposition.