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2.3 Senator S.C. Ferguson of the Chief Minister regarding his commitment to transparency:
How long will it be before Jersey follows the U.K. (United Kingdom) commitment to transparency and produces organisation charts showing the names, job title and salary for all senior civil servants at director level and above as well as the job title of all senior civil servants at deputy director level along with the number of staff in the team and their grades?
Senator T.A. Le Sueur (The Chief Minister):
I begin by referring the Senator to my response to a written question, number 5719, from the Deputy of St. Mary tabled in October. Departmental Business Plans already provide organisational charts and numbers are available on the States website. But I
acknowledge that at the present time these do not contain details of salary grades. I
would like to advise the Senator that we have already committed to publishing fuller information beginning with the remuneration and benefits of accounting officers in the forthcoming annual report and accounts.
- Senator S.C. Ferguson:
Supplementary. So that we can expect as full information as one can get from the direct.gov.uk set-up where I can see that Sir Gus O'Donnell, Head of the Cabinet Secretary, earns between £235,000 and £239,000 a year including London-weighting. Can we expect this sort of transparency?
Senator T.A. Le Sueur :
We can certainly expect a greater degree of information and transparency, whether it would be along the exact lines of the U.K. remains to be seen. In a small community it maybe not be so appropriate to give that level of detail, but certainly a greater degree than presently exists should be forthcoming.
- Deputy J.A. Martin:
Would the Chief Minister not agree the sooner that we implement the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law, this will need to be and will be in the public domain?
Senator T.A. Le Sueur :
I point out that details of all salaries over £70,000 are currently in the public domain and published by us on an annual basis and have been for some years now.
- Deputy D.J.A. Wimberley of St. Mary :
My written question today - written question 23 - asks the Chief Minister to give us some information about what the people who have accepted voluntary redundancy did, the 73 so far, so that we, the Members of the House, have some idea of what jobs have been lost. The Chief Minister has simply told me, and everyone else, that whether people are civil servants or manual workers, which I find less than transparent. I would like the Chief Minister to comment on his commitment to transparency in the light of his answer.
Senator T.A. Le Sueur :
The Deputy raises a completely new matter of voluntary redundancy here. We are committed to greater levels of openness and transparency. Whether it is sufficient to meet the needs of the Deputy , we will have to wait and see when they are published.
The Deputy of St. Mary :
May I ask a supplementary?
The Bailiff :
If it has got something to do with the question, yes, Deputy . The Deputy of St. Mary :
Yes, the question is about transparency and openness in relation to the U.K. and we
are completely in the dark as to what services have been lost or reduced as a result of
that particular programme. The Bailiff :
I am sorry, you have drifted too far off on the first one and that is even further off. Now, does any other Member wish to ask any questions? Senator Ferguson, do you wish a final reply to the final question?
- Senator S.C. Ferguson:
No, I thank the Chief Minister for his commitment to transparency and I look forward to seeing the results.