Ministerial delivery plans

23.02.07

4 Deputy L.V. Feltham of Chief Minister regarding Ministerial delivery plans

(OQ.15/2023)

Before I ask the question I will note that I do recognise it is a little out of date but I did want to give the Chief Minister the opportunity to answer at least the first part of the question. Will the Chief Minister provide the Assembly with an update on Ministerial delivery plans and advise when they will be published?

Deputy K.L. Moore of St. Mary , St. Ouen and St. Peter (The Chief Minister):

I thank the Deputy for her question. As she identified in the question, those delivery plans have now been published. They are available on gov.je. They are of course important working documents, which will give Ministers a guide as we deliver our programme for Government. As part of the monitoring process with the plans, I will be meeting regularly with Ministers to monitor that.

1. Deputy L.V. Feltham :

This is the first time that we have seen Ministerial delivery plans as opposed to departmental operational business plans. I would like the Chief Minister to perhaps give us more of a flavour about what the key differences are between the 2; what we have seen in the past and now what we see in these new Ministerial delivery plans.

Deputy K.L. Moore :

Thank you; gladly. Essentially these delivery plans are identifying areas where Ministers have committed to delivering on their mandate and on their work plans. These documents are part of us being able to hold officials to account in terms of delivering on the Ministerial aspirations for their term of office. We think that it is important to do so and a useful tool. It is new, of course, and the reason therefore for these being published on gov.je rather than on the States Assembly website is it is more a functioning working document that is aligned with our work, alongside officials.

2. Deputy S.Y. Mézec :

Does the Chief Minister regard the Ministerial delivery plan of the Minister for External Relations and Financial Services to be out of date now, and if so, when will it be reissued?

Deputy K.L. Moore :

Very hawkeyed, and yes, of course, we will have to review that and redivide the responsibilities accordingly. I will be adding those to my own delivery plan.

3. Deputy R.J. Ward :

Given the Ministerial reshuffle in the past few days the documents are out of date, is it intended that they will be republished and, if so, in what format? Because obviously publishing things in paper form means we may have quite a lot of wastage going on.

Deputy K.L. Moore :

The delivery plans themselves have only been published online and, as I said, they are working documents. Therefore they can be amended accordingly. We will endeavour to do so as swiftly as possible.

 

4. Deputy R.J. Ward :

Will that include an update on the allocation of budget per Minister or does that still remain ... it is not clear whether it is per Minister or per project in the Government Plan?

Deputy K.L. Moore :

In the Government Plan that was agreed by the Assembly, there are heads of expenditure per Ministerial portfolio and so, where necessary, we will of course readdress that and discuss that with our relevant Scrutiny Panels. I would imagine that the differences will be quite minimal in that area.

5. Connétable D.W. Mezbourian of St. Lawrence :

How will the Chief Minister assess the performance and delivery of her Ministers against those plans?

Deputy K.L. Moore :

That is a very good question, and performance management is a key area of interest and I think one where much greater work and energy and focus is required to ensure that we do deliver for the public. That is why I will be meeting regularly with Ministers to discuss their delivery plan and how they are performing against that. I very much look forward to ensuring that the Ministerial team, because it certainly is a focused team, will meet those and their aspirations.

6. The Connétable of St. Lawrence :

Should a Minister not be performing appropriately and deliver the expectations that the Chief Minister and indeed we, as an Assembly, have of them, how will the Chief Minister deal with them?

Deputy K.L. Moore :

As perhaps the recent days have shown, when we fall short we will address that. It is an important part of performance management to ensure that we have sometimes difficult conversations as well as patting each other on our backs when there is cause to do so. I will not shirk from that part of my role.

7. Deputy G.P. Southern :

The Chief Minister referred earlier to holding officers or officials to account. Surely the chain of command says holding Ministers to account on their Ministerial delivery plans.

Deputy K.L. Moore :

I am slightly confused by the Deputy ’s question there. My job of course is to hold the Ministers to account for delivering, yes. Their job - part of it - is to hold their officials to account for delivering as the Government has requested of them.

8. Deputy A. Howell of St. John , St. Lawrence and Trinity :

In light of the announcement that, with the exception of commercial fishermen and organisations with pre-existing business arrangements, all users of Ports of Jersey will need to pay an additional 10.4 per cent for fees from 1st March 2023 …

The Bailiff :

Deputy , I am struggling to see how this relates to the original question, which is Ministerial plans. Deputy A. Howell :

So sorry, I apologise, I thought this was a separate question. The Bailiff :

No, this is a specific question to the Chief Minister.

Deputy A. Howell : Apologies.

The Bailiff :

Very well, a final supplementary, Deputy Feltham .

9. Deputy L.V. Feltham :

The Ministerial delivery plans state that they do not include all business as usual to be undertaken by Ministers and departments. How can Ministers and the Chief Minister be sure that other business- as-usual operations are resourced adequately and the performance on that business-as-usual operations attract?

Deputy K.L. Moore :

So, clearly business as usual is a matter of focus for all Ministers and a key part of our role is to ensure that the areas of responsibility are properly resourced so that they can deliver for the public. These are simply documents that focus on areas of particular Ministerial focus each year and, of course, what is critical to that is that we deliver for the public, as they would expect of us. But of course business as usual is always in the spotlight and we take our responsibility to the resourcing of departments extremely seriously, as I am sure does the Deputy in her role as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee.