Chairmen's Committee - Approved Committee Minutes - 27 October 2006

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Agenda matter

Action

1.

Minutes

The Minutes of 8th, 12th, 19th, 22nd and 29th September 2006 were approved, subject to the following amendments -

1. Item 22, 8th September 2006: deletion of second paragraph;

2. Item 1, 19th September 2006: the action was to be taken by the Chairman in liaison with the Greffier of the States.

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Item 5 08.09.06

Matters arising - stand-alone propositions

Amendment to Standing Orders- the Committee was advised that the  Privileges  and  Procedures  Committee  had  referred  the proposed amendment to Standing Orders regarding stand alone scrutiny propositions to the Council of Ministers for comment. The President undertook to contact the Chief Minster directly to enquire about the outcome.

RD

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Third quarter financial report

The Committee considered the financial report for the third quarter 2006,  together  with  additional  information  summarising  to  the expenditure. The Committee requested that in future it receive only the summary information rather than detailed information on each item of expenditure.

1. Expenditure on Travel - the Chairmen of the Environment and Social  Affairs  Panels  explained  the  rationale  for  their  Panels' expenditure on visits to the United Kingdom and the contribution these visits had made to their reviews. It was agreed that Panels were fully justified in making such visits when they extended the Panel's understanding of issues related to reviews. It was noted that  the  expenditure  of  the  Social  Affairs  Panel  day  visit  to Southampton compared favourably to a week long visit by Legal Advisers to York to examine training for designated case officers.

2. Travel  expenses  It  was  agreed  that  members  should  be entitled to an expenses allowance when travelling equivalent to the allowance  for  members  on  visits  with  the  Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. This was for use on matters such as

taxi fares, light meals etc.

c) Legal advice - it was agreed that this expenditure should be shown on a separate line.

d) Miscellaneous  items - the  Committee  noted  that  the Environment  Panel  had  incurred £5176  in miscellaneous' expenditure.  It  was  informed  that  this  related  to  the  compost exhibition at the RJA&HS and to the Krysteline glass implosion machine.

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Reports for Ministerial decisions

The  Committee  noted  the  outcome  of  a  meeting  between  the President and the Chief Executive in which it had been agreed that details of relevant additional information should be included, where appropriate, in reports accompanying ministerial decisions so that Scrutiny  could  more  easily  request  relevant  documents  where necessary. This was confirmed in an e-mail, dated 17th October 2006, to members of the Corporate Management Board from the Policy Adviser, Chief Minister's Department.

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Item 3 22.09.06

Scrutiny Away Day

The schedule for the Away day on 3rd November was noted. The Deputy of St. Ouen apologised for the fact that an early press release had been made in response to pressure from the Jersey Evening Post.

The Committee agreed to amend some of the arrangements to allow for a sandwich lunch to afford greater time to the media at the lunch break.

The Committee thanked Deputies Reed and Mezbourian for the arrangements they had made for the day.

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Panel reports

1. Corporate Services Panel

Adviser - The  Committee  noted  that  further  work  would  be undertaken by the both the GST and Zero/ten Sub panels following the publication of their reports. An estimate for £11,510 for further work to be undertaken by the Panel's adviser on GST (9 additional days)  and  Zero/ten  (7  additional  days)  was  approved  by  the Committee. A vote of thanks was given to the officers who had worked long and hard on this review.

Domestic Housing - The Committee noted the Contract for Services and the Agreement for the provision of consultancy services for the research work undertaken by the Mortgage Shop Plus into the sale of  domestic  housing.  The  cost  of  the  project  was £3,000.  The Committee was informed that this had resulted in a useful insight into an area where States' official statistics were currently lacking. There was a possibility of a future review of the housing market.

States Business Plan process - The Committee was informed that the Corporate Services Panel intended to review the process for the development of the States Business Plan and would welcome input from other Panels in due course.

2. Economic Affairs

Adviser - The Committee noted the appointment of an adviser for the  review  of  the  sale  of  Jersey  Telecom.  The  Treasury  had