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1240/5(5275)
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER BY DEPUTY P.V.F. LE CLAIRE OF ST. HELIER ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 20th APRIL 2010
Question
"To help and assist the Comprehensive Spending Review, would the Chief Minister provide an organisation chart of his department identifying every post, the post holder's duties and responsibilities, the salary grade and whether the post is currently filled or vacant and, if possible, if any of these post holders are suspended?"
Answer
The Deputy 's request for the detailed information listed above has not only been directed to the Chief Minister but also to the Ministers for Treasury and Resources, Social Security, Planning and Environment and Health and Social Security. Taken together these departments employ some 2960 staff out of a total of 6000. The Deputy is asking for information to be provided on each one of these posts. That would take a massive amount of time to collate and present in a meaningful format.
Far from attempting "to help and assist the Comprehensive Spending Review", answering such questions would involve a vast amount of additional, time-consuming and unnecessary work which would take attention away from the work of reviewing efficiency and the effect of potential cuts or transfers of functions.
Unfortunately the Deputy did not attend the recent CSR workshop where he would have had the opportunity to understand the true nature of the CSR process and the Council of Ministers' determined objective to reduce States expenditure over the coming years.
Most of the information the Deputy is asking for is included the Annex to the Business Plan, which has been sent to each States Member, and in each department's Business Plan for 2010 which is published on the States website (gov.je). In the latter he will find an organisation chart, a breakdown of staffing by Division with a description of the work of that Division. They also contain the departmental budget and work programmes which set out performance indicators and targets.
With regards to the number of post-holders suspended, I refer the Deputy to the detailed answers I gave earlier this year to Questions 5162 and 5174 asked by the Deputy of St Martin.
I am satisfied that the Comprehensive Spending Review has all of the necessary information on which to undertake an informed analysis and identify opportunities to cut spending and make efficiencies. I also believe that if the Deputy reads and analyses the Business plans he will also have sufficient information on which to base his judgements.
I therefore do not intend to undertake further work and have advised the other Ministers to take the same approach.