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WQ.402/2023
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER
BY DEPUTY R.S. KOVACS OF ST. SAVIOUR QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 16th OCTOBER 2023 ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 23rd OCTOBER 2023
Question
“Will the Chief Minister provide details of the work undertaken by Crest Advisory (UK) Ltd in relation to law-drafting instructions for the Public Sector Ombudsman Redress Scheme and Inquiries (PSORSI) as referenced in the report, R.17/2023, for which they were paid between £100,000 and £125,000 in fees and, if not, why not; and will she nevertheless state the outcomes from the provision of this funding?”
Answer
Crest Advisory Ltd were commissioned under the previous Government to expedite projects which had been delayed due to policy officer resources being deployed onto COVID-19 related work. For each of these three projects, Crest was commissioned to draft instructions to the Legislative Drafting Office for the production of draft legislation. This work has been completed. An outline of the purpose of the draft legislation is set out below:
• Public Sector Ombudsman – To establish a Jersey Public Services Ombudsman (JPSO), and to provide for its governance, functions and powers. The instructions produced by Crest formed the basis of law drafting instructions that I published in October 2022 (Jersey Public Services Ombudsperson: Law drafting instructions (gov.je)) and the draft Jersey Public Services Ombudsperson Law 202- is due to be lodged with the Assembly before the end of 2023.
• Statutory Redress – To establish a statutory basis for a scheme to provide redress, financial and non-financial, for individuals who suffered significant harm from specific types of abuse in specific contexts, as distinct from standing up time limited redress schemes in response to key events (for example, the Historic Abuse Redress Schemes I and II).
• Public Inquiries Law – A statutory mechanism to establish public inquiries in response to major events. The potential requirement for a public inquiries law was first identified during the course of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry, which highlight limitations with the existing Committee of Inquiry structure in relation to major and wide-ranging investigations. The previous administration prioritised development of the potential law post-Covid due to concerns about potential demands for an associated public inquiry.