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19-21 Broad Street | St Helier Jersey | JE2 3RR
Deputy Sam Mézec
Chair, Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel
BY EMAIL
18 August 2023
Dear Chair,
Establishment of the Jersey Public Services Ombudsperson
I am writing following the private Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel (CSSP) briefing on my legislative proposals to establish the Jersey Public Services Ombudsperson (JPSO) on 15 August. Thank you for your initial feedback on these proposals and I look forward to providing CSSP with the draft Law and receiving the Panel’s detailed feedback on it in due course.
As part of the briefing, we discussed the merits of establishing the JPSO in shadow form, as soon as practicable. We also corresponded and met earlier this year to discuss this, in your capacity as President of the Scrutiny Liaison Committee.
The rationale for establishing the JPSO in shadow form is to ensure that the Law may be implemented without any unnecessary delay following its approval by the States Assembly. This is because, before the JPSO would be able to carry out its legal functions, the Ombudsperson and their staff will have a significant amount of preparatory work to undertake. As I set out in my letter of 6 February, this includes:
• drafting and consulting on guidance, policies and procedures which must be in place before the JPSO is able to perform its core functions;
• working with public authorities to update their complaints handling processes, in line with the JPSO’s model complaints handling guidance, before the Law comes into force;
• raising public awareness of the JPSO’s future role and how it will perform its statutory functions;
• recruiting and training the JPSO’s staff, including building links with other Ombud schemes to obtain training resources; and
• procuring and setting up the case management systems required to carry out investigations effectively.
In February 2018, the States previously approved a proposition (P.32/2018) brought by then Senator Ozouf to establish a Public Services Ombudsman. While the establishment of a shadow Ombudsperson would be consistent with this decision of the Assembly, I think it is important to take soundings from current States members as to whether they support the principle of acting on the decision taken in P.32/2018 before we do so.
To this end, I would be most grateful if you could advise me whether CSSP supports the establishment of the JPSO in shadow form?
I recognise, of course, that the Panel may wish to scrutinise the draft Law in detail and may seek to lodge amendments to it. I wish to be clear that in no way would I seek to, nor can I tie the Panel’s hands in how it exercises its important scrutinising role. I simply wish to ascertain whether the Panel supports the principle of establishing the JPSO in shadow form as this is critical to enable recruitment for the Ombudsperson to commence without delay.
I would be grateful for your support to ensure that the JPSO is in position to carry out its work as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Deputy Kristina Moore Chief Minister