States of Jersey Complaints Panel: Appointment of Members

STATES OF JERSEY

STATES OF JERSEY COMPLAINTS PANEL: APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS

Lodged au Greffe on 21st July 2009

by the Privileges and Procedures Committee

STATES GREFFE

2009   Price code: B  P.116

PROPOSITION

THE STATES are asked to decide whether they are of opinion

to  refer  to  their  Act  dated  17th  June  2009  in  which  they  appointed  the Chairman,   Deputy  Chairmen  and  5 members  of  the  States  of  Jersey Complaints Panel, from whom members of Complaints Boards can be drawn, for a period of 3 years, and –

in  accordance  with  Article 5(2)  of  the  Administrative  Decisions (Review)  (Jersey)  Law  1982,  to  appoint  the  following  additional members of the Panel for a period of 3 years –

Mr. Christopher Beirne;

Mr. Robert Frederick Bonney; Mr. Frank Dearie;

Mr. Stephen William Platt.

PRIVILEGES AND PROCEDURES COMMITTEE

REPORT

Introduction

On 17th June 2009 the States approved the appointment of the Chairman, Deputy Chairmen and five members of the States of Jersey Complaints Panel as set out in P.92/2009.  Mrs.  Carol  Canavan  was  appointed  as  Chairman,  Advocate  Richard Renouf and Mr. Nigel Le Gresley as Deputy Chairmen and Mr. John Geoffrey Davies, Mrs. Mary Le Gresley, Mr. Thomas Perchard, Miss Christine Vibert and Mr. David Watkins  were  appointed  as  members.  As  explained  in  P.92/2009  these  initial reappointments were the first stage of a further recruitment process undertaken in relation to membership of the Complaints Panel and this proposition asks the States to appoint 4 new members who have not previously served on the Panel.

The Complaints Panel system

The Complaints Panel is established under the Administrative Decisions (Review) (Jersey) Law 1982, and it enables any person who is aggrieved by a decision made by a Minister or department, or any person acting on behalf of any such Minister or department, to apply to the Greffier of the States to have the matter reviewed by a Complaints Board. Once a complaint is received, the Greffier seeks the response of the Minister or department concerned before referring the papers to the Chairman of the Complaints Panel who decides whether or not the circumstances justify review by a Complaints Board. If she is of the view that the case should be referred to a Board, a hearing is arranged and a Board of 3 members selected from the Complaints Panel is established to deal with the case. If the Board finds in favour of the complainant it can request the Minister or department concerned to reconsider the decision. Article 5(2) of the Law requires the States to appoint the members of the Complaints Panel.

The selection process

The process to select additional members for the Complaints Panel was managed under  the  supervision  of  a  member  of  the  Appointments  Commission,  Mr. Brian Curtis MBE. The process was undertaken in an open and transparent way as required by the Codes drawn up by the Appointments Commission. An advertisement was placed in the Jersey Evening Post (see Appendix) seeking expressions of interest in the position, and 10 responses were received. The expressions of interest were considered by a selection panel consisting of Mr. Curtis , Mrs. Canavan as Chairman of the Complaints Panel and the Chairman of Privileges and Procedures Committee. The skills and experience of the candidates were assessed alongside other criteria such as their availability for this work. Five of the 10 applicants were shortlisted for interview. The interviews were then conducted by Mr. Curtis , Mrs. Canavan and the Greffier of the States. One candidate was not considered by the Interview Panel to have the necessary  skills  and  experience  for  this  task  but  4 applicants  were  considered eminently  suitable  and  the  Privileges  and  Procedures  Committee  is  pleased  to nominate them for appointment on the recommendation of the interview panel. The Committee believes that the 4 nominees, who come from very varying professional backgrounds, will bring a variety of skills and experience to the Complaints Panel.

Background information on the 4 nominees Mr. Christopher Beirne

Mr. Beirne is currently the Headmaster and Chief Executive of Beaulieu Convent School, a position he has held since September 2006. Mr. Beirne was educated at St. Mel's College, Longford, Ireland, the Gregorian University in Rome, the Institute of  Education  at  the  University  of  Hull  and  Oxford  University  Department  for Educational Studies. He worked for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Northampton between 1985 and 1993 before becoming Head of Religious Studies at Eggar's School Alton, Hampshire between 1994 and 1996, during which period he was also a part time lecturer at Portsmouth Sixth Form College. He came to Jersey in 1996 and worked at Victoria College as Head of Religious Studies and then Director of Spiritual and  Moral  Development  before  being  appointed  as  Vice-Principal  of  the  Jersey College for Girls in September 1999, a position he held until he was appointed to his current  post.  Mr. Beirne  is  the  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  Jersey  Association  of Headteachers  and  Director  of  the  Channel  Islands  operations  for  Rainbows (Bereavement Support for young people). He is the holder of a private pilot's licence and a member of the Jersey Aero Club.

Mr. Robert (Bob) Bonney

Mr. Bonney was born in Jersey and was a member of the States of Jersey Police force for some 28 years, retiring in 2005. During his police career Mr. Bonney served in all areas of the police force, including a significant period in a management role in States and Honorary police training. The majority of his service was, however, performed in various criminal investigative roles, during the course of which he led a number of the Island's murder inquiries. He led the Drugs Squad at the rank of Detective Inspector for 3 years before being appointed as the Head of Criminal Investigation Department, a position he held for 5 years before his retirement. Since his retirement he has been involved with his wife in developing his family property, and he is now keen to serve the Island in some honorary way.

Mr. Frank Dearie

Mr. Dearie has recently retired following a career spanning more than 35 years in the finance industry in Jersey. Before his retirement he was a Private Client Director with the Royal Bank of Canada, a position he held from December 2005 until April 2009. Prior to that, he was the Director in charge of the tax function within the Abacus Financial Services Group for some 12 years. Mr. Dearie is a member of STEP (The Society  of  Trust  and  Estate  Practitioners),  and  of  the  Association  of  Taxation Technicians. He has participated in many professional working parties, the most recent being the Jersey Financial Services Fiscal Strategy Working Party on Jersey tax issues. Following his retirement Mr. Dearie wishes to become more actively involved with a number of voluntary and charity projects. He was recently appointed by the States as a Commissioner of Appeal for Income Tax.

Mr. Stephen Platt

Mr. Platt is Group Chairman of BakerPlatt which comprises the law firm BakerPlatt, Forward Training and KYC Active  Limited. He  is a qualified practicing English Barrister and Associate member of a leading set of Chambers in London, 7 Bedford

Row. Mr. Platt has extensive experience as an independent reporting professional. He has  wide  experience  of  acting  objectively  and  impartially  in  investigating  and reporting upon the facts of a variety of matters relevant to the conduct of Financial Services. He is also a core expert to the UN and World Bank StAR anti-corruption initiative.  Outside  his  professional  duties  Mr. Platt  is  the  Chairman  of  the  Jersey Employment Trust which serves to provide training and employment opportunities for disabled people in Jersey.

Financial and manpower implications

All members of the Complaints Panel serve in an honorary capacity and there are no financial or manpower implications arising from this Proposition.