Amendments to Standing Orders – Miscellaneous amendments

STATES OF JERSEY

AMENDMENT TO STANDING ORDERS

– MISCELLANEOUS AMENDMENTS

Lodged au Greffe on 27th January 2026 by the Privileges and Procedures Committee Earliest date for debate: 24th February 2026

STATES GREFFE

2026  P.12

PROPOSITION

THE STATES are asked to decide whether they are of opinion –

(a)  to rescind their Act dated 17th January 2024, in which they had adopted an amendment to Standing Order 2 to alter the roll of elected members, and to make the following amendments to the Standing Orders of the States of Jersey with effect from 8th June 2026

1. Standing Order 2 [Roll of elected members] For paragraphs (1) to (5), substitute –

"(1) When  required,  the  roll  of  elected  members  shall  be  called  in  the

following order –

1. Senators;
2. Connétable s;
3. Deputies.

2. The order in which the Senators are called shall be determined according to the length of time each of them has held office as an elected member.
3. The order in which  the Connétable s  are  called  shall be  determined according to the length of time each of them has held office as an elected member.
4. The order in which the Deputies are called shall be determined according to the length of time each of them has held office as an elected member.
5. If any 2 or more elected members have held such office for the same length of time, the order between them shall be determined according to the alphabetical order of their surnames.
6. If there is more than one elected member to whom paragraph (5) applies, the order between them shall be determined according to the alphabetical order of their forenames.".

2. Standing Order 105 [Modes of reference to other members of the States]

Before sub-paragraph (a) insert the following and re-designate the remaining sub-paragraphs accordingly –

"(a) a Senator, by name;"

3. Standing Order 115 [Chief Minister: nominations]

In paragraph (3), insert "Senator, " before the word " Deputy " each time it appears.

(b)  to make the following amendments to the Standing Orders of the States of Jersey with immediate effect

1.  Standing Order 66 [Duration of periods for questions without notice] For paragraphs (1) to (3), substitute –

"Each of the 3 question periods shall be 15 minutes or, if shorter, the time needed for all Members of the States wishing to ask a question to have spoken and for those questions to have been answered.".

PRIVILEGES AND PROCEDURES COMMITTEE

REPORT

PPC has proposed these minor, housekeeping amendments to Standing Orders in order to tidy up certain provisions.

Re-instatement of Senators

Three amendments to Standing Orders are required in light of the Assembly's decision to re-instate the office of Senator. In essence, these amendments restore provisions in Standing Orders that were removed in 2022.

1. There is a need to accommodate Senators within the roll call that is taken at the start  of  each meeting  day  and  continuation day, the  operation  of  which  is governed by Standing Order 2. Since the office of Senator was removed in 2022, the Assembly has agreed other amendments to Standing Order 2 to clarify how the roll call would be constructed; however, those amendments are not yet in force. The Assembly agreed on 17th January 2024 that all Connétable s would be called together, followed by all Deputies. Within those groups, the order would be determined by the length of time each Connétable or Deputy had served as an elected Member (in whatever capacity and irrespective of whether the service was continuous). If two Members could otherwise not be separated, the order would be determined alphabetically by their surnames (and then their forenames if they shared the same surname).

Procedurally, PPC is proposing to rescind that earlier decision (given it is not yet in force) and to replace the amendment that was agreed with an enhanced amendment to Standing Order 2 that now incorporates the role of Senator. In accordance with this newly-proposed amendment, Senators would be called first, before Connétable s and then Deputies. However, the same criteria would be used to  differentiate  between  Senators  within  their  group  as  would  be  used  for Connétable s and Deputies: length of service followed by alphabetical order of surname (and then forenames).

2. Senators need to be included within the provisions of Standing Order 105 to confirm how others should refer to them during proceedings. Senators would be referred to by name, as Deputies are, and in the way that they were previously ( Connétable s are referred to by their Parish).
3. A minor amendment to Standing Order 115 is required. This Standing Order governs the process  by which candidates are nominated for Chief Minister immediately following an election. It is stipulated that individuals may sign nomination forms if they have been elected at the recent election, even if they have not yet taken the oath of office and officially become an elected States Member. This provision currently only applies to those elected as Connétable or Deputy and there is a need to ensure the same provision applies to those elected as Senator. Otherwise, newly-elected Senators would not be able to sign the nomination form for a candidate for Chief Minister until they had been sworn in.  

Oral Questions without notice

PPC has considered the current arrangements whereby any time not used during the first two periods of Oral Questions without notice at a States Meeting may be added to the time allowed during the third period; the Chief Minister answers questions during the third period at each meeting.

The Committee has considered the equity of current arrangements and agreed that it would be more equitable if all Ministers and the Chief Minister faced a set maximum time of 15 minutes on each occasion.

The roll-over' that currently occurs has been in place since the advent of Ministerial Government. At that time, in 2005, there were only two question periods at each meeting with the Chief Minister appearing in the second period at every other States Meeting. It was therefore possible for other Ministers to face more than 15 minutes of questions on occasion if the roll-over was applied when they appeared in the second of the two slots.

When the Assembly moved to a three-weekly meeting cycle, the current arrangements for Oral Questions without notice were introduced; with three question periods at each meeting and the Chief Minister appearing third each time. The roll-over only applies to that third period and it is therefore only the Chief Minister who can ever face more than 15 minutes.

PPC's amendment would ensure that any Minister facing Oral Questions without notice (including the Chief Minister) would face a maximum period of 15 minutes of questions and there would no longer be any provision for a roll-over to be applied.

Financial and staffing implications

There are no financial of staffing implications arising from the adoption of these amendments to Standing Orders.

Children's Rights Impact Assessment

A Children's Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) has not been prepared in relation to this proposition as a CRIA is not required, in accordance with Schedule 2 to the Children (Convention Rights) (Jersey) Law 2022.