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Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel
Record of Meeting
Date: 9th February 2012 Meeting No: 6
Present | Deputy J. M. Maçon, Chairman Connétable M. P. S. Le Troquer, Vice Chairman Connétable S. W. Pallett |
In attendance | M. Haden, Scrutiny Officer |
Ref Back | Agenda matter | Action |
| 1. Minutes The Minutes of the meetings held on 23rd and 27th January 2012 were approved as a true record and signed accordingly. |
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Item 3 23.01.12 516/1(51) | 2. Home Affairs Departmental Briefing The Panel considered the briefing note provided by the Scrutiny Officer on the informal briefing on 27th January 2012. Members also noted an updated report on the Department's Comprehensive Spending Review projects. Further information was requested on the following matters:
The Panel agreed to request a quarterly public hearing with the Minister in the last week of March 2012. Members also agreed that it would be appropriate to call for public hearings with the Chief Officers of each of the services in the Department based on their annual reports once these had been published. The process would commence with the Chief Officer of Police and the Chief Officer of Customs and Immigration. | MH |
Items 3 & 6 23.01.12 516/1(51) | 3. Education, Sport and Culture Departmental Briefing The Panel considered the briefing note provided by the Scrutiny Officer on the informal briefing on 30th January 2012. The Panel confirmed its interest in the development of the Youth Service Strategy and the ongoing negotiations on new partnership arrangements (Business Plan ref YS 1-3) and indicated their intention to review the Strategy in due course. It was agreed to request a presentation from the Island Youth Officer at the next meeting. The Panel also confirmed its interest in reviewing the working of Skills Jersey (Business Plan ref LLL3). Conscious that tackling current youth unemployment was a cross-cutting issue the Panel agreed to liaise with the Economic Affairs Panel regarding their intentions for reviewing this | MH MH |
| area. It was also agreed to request information from the Education, Sport and Culture department on their plans for enhancing vocational training (Business Plan ref LLL4) for the academic year commencing September 2012. The Panel noted the Minister's intention to publish White papers on School Catchment Areas and Higher Education Fees. In connexion with the latter, the Panel noted the recent Ministerial Decision (MD-ESC- 2012 -0003) to maintain current arrangements for student financial support for the academic year 2012/13 and to undertake a review of student financial support with a view to proposing changes to take effect from September 2013 onwards. Members requested clarification of the Minister's timetable for both these projects. Consideration of an audit report on the recently implemented Jersey Framework for Schools Evaluation was deferred to the next meeting. | MH MH MH |
Item 5 23.01.12 516/1(58) | 4. Impact of socio-economic status on educational achievement The Panel noted the views of the Chairmen's Committee on the proposed Community Relations Trust research project. The Chairmen's Committee believed that it was not the role of Scrutiny to provide funding for independent research projects and questioned whether the proposed project should be more properly funded by the Education, Sport and Culture Department or the Home Affairs Department. However, there would be justification for the Panel to provide funding if the research was part of a review of Departmental Policy. Members noted that the promotion of social inclusion and equal opportunity was a high priority for the Minister (Key Objective 4(iii)) and agreed to consider of a possible review of this issue which could encompass the proposed research project. Members requested a copy of the 2011 Inclusion Report accordingly. | MH |
| 5. States Medium Term Financial Plan The Panel noted that the Chairmen's Committee wished all Panels to play an active part in the preparation and development of the States Medium Term Financial Plan. Members confirmed their interest in scrutinising the proposals and requested early information from the two Departments within the Panel's remit. | MH |
510/1(21) | 6. Code of Conduct for Scrutiny Members requested the Chairmen's Committee to consider the practice of Scrutiny Chairmen conducting regular informal meetings with Ministers. Members recognised the value of such opportunities to gain information on departmental developments; however they also believed that there was a potential for the Chairman's position to be compromised if the relationship to become too "cosy". It was also important that other Panel members were kept fully informed. |
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Item 2 27.01.12 516/12(6) | 7. Customs and Immigration Department Members considered the Ministerial Response to the previous Scrutiny Panel report on departmental staffing (SR14/2008). Members noted that evidence was given to the previous Panel review in |
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| 2008 which appeared to indicate that increased quantities of illegal drugs were being imported into the Island and that this was linked to reductions in Customs control. They requested updated information from both Customs and Immigration and the States of Jersey Police in order to evaluate whether this trend continued. Members also noted that further staff reductions had been implemented as part of Comprehensive Spending Review savings in 2011. It was agreed that it was important to evaluate the impact of these reductions in the light of concerns expressed in the aforementioned Scrutiny Report. These matters would be raised at the forthcoming meeting with Customs and Immigration on 14th February 2012. | MH |
Item 1 27.01.12 516/31 | 8. Draft States of Jersey Police Force Law 201- (P.182/2011) The Panel considered draft comments on the draft law and agreed to finalise the comments once they had had the opportunity to consider the amendments proposed by the Minister. |
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Item 7 15.12.11 516/27 | 9. Surveillance – topic proposal The Panel considered a briefing paper prepared by the Scrutiny Officer outlining the potential scope for a review of surveillance. Members noted that a number of recent parliamentary inquiries into this subject had taken a broad view of this subject including issues such as the gathering and use of personal information in central government databases and monitoring of telephone and internet communication by intelligence agencies. Members, however, decided to focus their attention on camera surveillance and to examine issues such as:
It was noted that the Data Protection Commissioner had published a Code of Practice setting out legally enforceable standards for the processing of images. The Panel noted that the Scrutiny Officer had arranged opportunities to meet the States of Jersey Police and the Data Protection Commissioner prior to drafting a formal scope for the proposed review. Members agreed to consider a further briefing paper on the topic in due course | MH |
Item 7 23.01.12 516/29 | 10. Ministerial response: issues surrounding the review of financial management of Operation Rectangle (SR16/2011) The Panel considered the Ministerial Response and agreed that no further action was required on their part. |
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516/5(15) | 11. Jersey Fire and Rescue Service The Panel noted the following consultation papers on the following: (a) Petroleum (Jersey) Law 1984 – proposed amendment to Petroleum Licensing fee structure |
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| (b) Fire Precautions (Jersey) Law 1977 and Fire Precautions Designated Premises (Jersey) Regulations 1979 – proposed extension of fire safety legislation to Houses in Multiple Occupation and private hospitals Members requested the opportunity to review the consultation responses. | MH |
| 12. Future meetings The following meetings were noted:
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