Chairmen's Committee - Approved Committee Minutes - 19 June 2012

Present

Deputy T.A. Vallois, President

Senator S.C. Ferguson

Deputy J.H. Young

Deputy K.L. Moore

Connétable of St. Martin , Vice-Chairman, Education and Home Affairs

Apologies

Deputy S.G. Luce , Vice-President Deputy J.M. Maçon

Absent

In attendance

Mrs K. Tremellen-Frost, Scrutiny Manager

Ref Back

Agenda matter

Action

1. Minutes of previous meetings

The minutes of the meetings of 22nd, 28th and 30th May 2012, having  been  approved,  were  accordingly  signed.  The  Part  B minutes  of  22nd  May  2012,  having  also  been  approved,  were signed.

2. Panel Activity Reports These were noted.

30.05.12 Item 1

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3. Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP)

The Committee noted that the previous lodging date of the MTFP of 3rd July 2012 had suffered slippage and the estimated date for lodging "au Greffe"  was now around 23rd July. The Committee considered the uncertainties of the overall process and the ongoing negotiations  between  Departments  which  restricted  reliable information  being  provided  to  Scrutiny.  The  Committee  also considered the importance of questioning whether the budgetary allocations within the MTFP would implement the States-adopted Strategic Plan.

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4.  Medium  Term  Financial  Plan  (MTFP):  Corporate  Services Scrutiny Panel:

The scoping document and terms of reference for a review by the Corporate Services Panel and another by the Corporate Services Sub-Panel was noted.

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5. Radon: Environment Scrutiny Panel

The scoping document and terms of reference for this review was noted.

22.05.12 Item 6

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6. Podcasting

The  Committee,  recalling  its  previous  deliberations  about Webstreaming, live Webcasting and podcasting, welcomed Mr. P.

Taylor , Communications Services to the meeting. The Committee was initially advised of the difference between podcasting (listen post-event) and Webcasting (a live broadcast over the World Wide Web).

The Committee was advised that the setting up and management of Webcasting was more complicated than podcasting and would require more training and incur more expenditure although this was minimal. The Committee was advised that podcasting itself would require some training but minimal expenditure and could be set up in the short term.

Although  enthusiastic  about  introducing  podcasting  as  soon  as

possible  and  giving  this  in  principle  agreement,  the  Committee recalled that it had already agreed that it would be considering these matters together with the matter of members of the public taking images/video of Hearings at its meeting of 3rd July 2012.

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7. Chairmen's Committee/Council of Ministers joint meetings

The Committee noted that the President had been approached by a Scrutiny Member who had questioned why joint meetings between the Chairmen's Committee and the Council of Ministers, which had occurred during previous terms of office, had ceased.

The  President  had  explained  that  the  joint  meetings  had  not achieved many positive outcomes and revised working practices to improve on previous systems had been agreed upon appointment of the current Chief Minister and President.

The Committee agreed the most effective and beneficial meetings in terms of outcomes were the monthly meetings between the Chief Minister and President.

However, the Committee considered the possible value in terms of communication, of the Chairmen's Committee and the Council of Ministers  meeting  as  there  appeared  too  few  opportunities  for Members to meet and work together. It was noted that one of the main opportunities for Members to integrate had, in the past, been over lunches on States Assembly meeting days. The removal of these had encouraged more working in "silos".

Notwithstanding the Committee agreement to the principle of joint meetings, it was mindful not to overburden the Council's agenda and workload. No conclusion was reached as to specific matters which  would merit discussion other than the opportunity to "air issues". The Committee also considered a suggestion of the Chief Minister that, should joint meetings be required by the Chairmen's Committee, a presentation on the MTFP would be useful.

The  Committee  agreed  six  monthly  joint  meetings  should  be explored with the first one being in the next few months.

It was agreed that the President would discuss this with the Chief Minister at the forthcoming monthly meeting.

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8. Raising the profile of the media through the Jersey Evening Post (JEP)

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The Committee was advised that the President had been invited to meet  two  JEP  journalists  to  discuss  ways  they  could  improve working arrangements to enable more features on Scrutiny.

The President had suggested that they contact the Scrutiny Office to understand the work that takes place behind the scenes. They had  also  been  requested  to  advise  the  President  of  their  own schedules and deadlines, however to date neither of these had been followed up.

The  Committee  noted  that  media  releases  needed  Panel/PAC agreement prior to circulation and that in the case of the PAC this involved independent Members of the Committee. It was noted that failure to respond to electronic mail communications could cause delays, resulting in missing media deadlines.

Although the Committee expressed some concern that the media appeared to be more interested in "bad news" stories as they made more interesting reading, the Committee agreed that there were ways that Panel/Committee profiles could be raised.

It was agreed that once the hearing schedule had been circulated this  could  be  followed  up  with  a  more  detailed  press  release indicating  topics  on  which  the  Minister/witness  would  be questioned. In terms of specific reviews attention could be drawn to the areas of questioning, however, Panels/PAC would need to be exert  caution  as,  in  accordance  with  the  Code  of  Practice  for Scrutiny  Panels  and  the  Public  Accounts  Committee,  question plans were not sent to Ministers and it would, therefore, be highly inappropriate to provide the media with detailed questions.

The Committee noted that the Health, Social Security and Housing Panel had invited the media to attend fact-finding visits with them although it was stressed that this needed to be agreed with the relevant  Department  and  attention  paid  to  any  possible sensitivities/confidentialities.  It  was  agreed  that  Panels  could explore such invitations as and when appropriate.

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9. Ministerial Responses to Scrutiny Reports

The  Committee  considered  the  Ministerial  Responses  to S.R.1/2012 and S.R.2/2012 and expressed concern at the entry by the  Minister  for  Health  in  response  to  S.R.2/2012  under  the "accept/reject" column of "comment". This column was specifically designed  to  identify  whether  a  Minister  accepted  or  rejected  a recommendation and not for Ministers to make other comments. There was a third box for comments to be made. The Committee considered entering "comment" in the accept/reject column was inappropriate  and  could  only  be  taken  as  a  rejection  of  the recommendation.  Given  the  high  profile  of  the  Health,  Social Security and Housing review in the public domain and the excellent report, the response was exceedingly disappointing.

It was noted that a further report which related to the subject of the Panel review was due to be published shortly and that this would enable the Panel to examine the response in more detail and to

challenge  the  Minister  as  appropriate.  The  Chairman,  HSSH undertook to progress this matter.

The Committee lastly noted the options available for follow-up of Ministerial  Responses:  by  letter,  Quarterly  Hearing  or  follow-up Hearing, oral questions in the States or lodging a proposition "au Greffe" for States debate.

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07.02.12 Item5

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10. Ministerial Responses 2009-2011

 The Committee noted and welcomed a piece of work which was

currently being undertaken on all Ministerial Responses which had been  presented  throughout  the  2009-2012  term  of  office.  This entailed listing all accepted Ministerial Responses with an aim to following up on the implementation.

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11. Future meetings

3rd July 2012 9.30am-10.30am – podcasting and members

of the public taking visual footage

24th July 2012 9.30am – 11.30am – Scheduled meeting

deferred from 3rd July 2012