The official version of this document can be found via the PDF button.
The below content has been automatically generated from the original PDF and some formatting may have been lost, therefore it should not be relied upon to extract citations or propose amendments.
1240/5(3976)
WRITTEN QUESTION TO CHAIRMAN OF PRIVILEGES AND PROCEDURES BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 1st JULY 2008
Question
In addition to the Scrutiny citizenship involvement, what specific initiatives are in place or under consideration to try to ensure registration of under 18's and promote their participation in voting in the forthcoming 2008 elections?
Answer
As already stated on a number of occasions the Privileges and Procedures Committee is keen to encourage voter registration and turnout in this autumn's elections. The Committee was successful in obtaining permission for the carrying forward of funds from a 2007 underspend to fund a campaign to achieve this objective. The Committee's overall objective is to encourage registration for all persons who are entitled to be registered and although the Committee is keen to ensure that as many 16 and 17 year olds as possible are registered this should not be at the expense of similar measures taken to encourage the registration and participation of all other entitled persons.
At its last meeting the Committee selected a partner to run the forthcoming campaign which will begin in the very near future and continue until the date of the Deputies elections. The Committee has made it clear to tenderers for this work that encouraging the newly entitled 16 and 17 year olds to register will clearly be one important component of the campaign but the campaign must also have provision, for example, to encourage minority groups in the Island who are entitled to register to do so.
For the avoidance of doubt PPC believes it is important to address the reference by Deputy Southern to the Scrutiny citizenship programme in this question. That programme was for Year 10 pupils of the four 11-16 secondary schools and Hautlieu to inform pupils about how scrutiny and Ministers work together on issues. The meetings involved scrutiny members, scrutiny officers, Ministers and Department officers and the pupils spent time studying a Ministerial consultation paper and formulating questions, with the assistance of scrutiny, to put to the Minister and senior officers about the topic. The Scrutiny citizenship programme was not in any way directly related to trying to ensure registration of under 18's or promoting their participation in voting as could be implied by the wording of this question.