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WQ.99/2021
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER BY DEPUTY C.S ALVES OF ST. HELIER
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 8th MARCH 2021 ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 15th MARCH 2021
Question
Given that in his response to OQ.58/2021, the Chief Minister stated that the involvement of Sortition in the organisation of the Citizen Panel/Jury was to help with its establishment and they would not facilitate the discussions, will he therefore advise –
- who will be responsible for running the Citizen Panel/Jury sessions and collecting the data arising from them; and
- how will the impartiality of data collection methods be protected, and do these methods adhere to international best practices for market and/or social research?
Answer
Both the Citizens' Assembly on Climate Change and the Citizens' Jury on Assisted Dying are supported by a consortium of three organisations.
The role of the Sortition Foundation within this consortium is to undertake the selection process to populate both bodies. This role is in keeping with the purpose and services of the Sortition Foundation (they do not provide facilitation services) and is the same as the role they have played in other citizens' deliberative exercises.
The two other organisations in the consortium, Involve and the New Citizenship Project (NCP), are providing process design and facilitation services. The Citizens' Jury on Assisted Dying is being designed and facilitated by Involve. The Citizens' Assembly on Climate Change is being designed and facilitated by Involve and New Citizenship Project working together. Because of the size of the Citizens' Assembly, a mixed cohort of breakout room facilitators is required to support smaller group deliberation. This cohort are formed of four facilitators from Involve and NCP and three from the Government of Jersey[1].
In response to part a) – it is the role of the consortium to run both exercises, and to ensure the impartiality of the proceedings and of data collection. In addition, because of the scale of the exercise, the States Greffe are providing an officer to act as clerk to the Citizens' Assembly on Climate Change and will be compiling its report of recommendations.
In response to part b) – the Citizens' Assembly and Citizens' Jury are exercises in deliberative (or participatory) democracy. As such, while elements of good practice in market or social research are relevant, the levels of access, representation, probity and transparency for these exercises exceed those of market or social research. The market to provide services that support deliberative democracy exercises is relatively emergent, and formal codes of practice and/or professional accreditations do not exist. However, it is notable that both Involve and NCP are members of the OECDs Innovative Citizen Participation Network[2], which is leading the development of good practice across countries. Involve
also established the Deliberative Democracy Practitioners Network in 2019 to build the capacity and capability of practitioners and develop standards and principles for the effective delivery of citizens' assemblies and other deliberative processes.