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Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel
Record of Meeting
Date: 4th December 2014
Present | Deputy L. M. C. Doublet , Chairman Deputy S. Y. Mezec Deputy S. M. Wickenden. (Item 1 only) |
Apologies | Deputy J. M. Maçon, Vice-Chairman |
Absent |
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In attendance | Deputy M. Tadier (Item 4 only) Mr M. Robbins, Scrutiny Officer |
Ref Back | Agenda matter | Action |
516/1(1) | 1. Constitution Deputy S. M. Wickenden advised the Panel of his resignation due to conflicts between the Scrutiny work and the work he was undertaking for the Police Authority. He signed a letter to the Bailiff to that effect in accordance with Standing Order 137. The Panel required the Chairman to examine the possibility of a specific States Member joining the Panel. |
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| 2. Records of Meetings The minutes of the meetings held on the 24th November 2014 were approved and signed accordingly. |
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516/1/1(7) | 3. Conflicts of Interest The Panel considered that there were no areas of conflict that had not previously been declared. |
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516/17 | 4. Prison Board of Visitors The Panel noted that Deputy M. Tadier had asked a question of the Chairman in the States regarding whether the Panel intended to undertake a follow-up on recommendation 7.19 of S.R.7/2009 Prison Board of Visitors, in which the previous panel recommended that a new system be implemented by the Minister for Home Affairs. The recommendation required independent members of the public be permitted to sit on the Prison Board of Visitors. The Panel welcomed Deputy Tadier who gave a presentation to the Panel on the details behind the question he had asked. He maintained that there was precedence towards the use of lay people within such panels as displayed in the States of Jersey Police Independent Custody Visitors Panel. Jurats, who made up the current membership, were the very people who in some cases had administered justice to offenders at |
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| their trials. This made them very unapproachable to offenders. The Panel was invited to consider presenting a proposition to the States requesting that the Minister make such changes as necessary to open the board to lay members. The Panel thanked Deputy M. Tadier who retired from the meeting. Following discussion, the Panel agreed to draft a proposition and charged Deputy Mezec with leading the work. |
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516/1/1(1) | 5. Work Programme The Panel noted a report published in November 2014 by the Jersey Community Relations Trust on Choice, Well-being and Opportunities in the Jersey School System and considered that members might like to examine the report to establish if it suggested areas that would be of interest to the Panel. It further recalled that the previous Minister for Education, Sport and Culture was believed to have made comments within his speech on the budget which could be of interest to the Panel. The Hansard transcript was to be circulated. | Panel MR |
516/1/1(3) 516/1/1(4) | 6. Briefing from Departments. The Panel noted and agreed to attend a briefing by the Home Affairs Department on 6th January 2015. The Panel was concerned that three emails had been sent from the Scrutiny Office to the Education, Sport and Culture Department in an attempt to arrange for a briefing but that there had been no response. The Panel required a strongly, but positively worded communication be sent to the Minister and Department advising of its disappointment at the delay in responding, advising of the requirement and need for communication to be undertaken between the Minister and the Panel. It was hoped that this would resolve the blockage that was apparent. | Panel MR |
516/1/1(5) | 7. Religious Education in Schools. The Panel agreed that there was a need for this topic to be examined but that it wished to defer that particular review until it had more experience. | MR |
516/1/1(5) | 8. Special Education Needs Provision The Panel questioned if the Minister had policies in this area, whether the policies were being followed and what the best practice was in other jurisdictions. It required some work be undertaken on scoping a review into the subject. There was concern the children influenced by such policies may not be having their needs met in the most appropriate manner. Once some work on scoping had been done, a decision as to whether a review was needed could be taken. | MR |
510/1(3) | 9. Visit to Westminster All members confirmed their availability to attend Westminster on 14th January 2015 and requested that a visit to the London Assembly on 15th was arranged if possible. | MR |
| 10. Future Meetings The Panel recalled it had arranged a provisional meeting for 22nd December 2014 and decided that it did not need to hold that meeting. The Panel received the list of dates for future meetings and agreed that the dates were in accordance with its requirements. Consideration would be given to provisional dates nearer to the dates concerned. The Panel agreed to meet next at 9.30am on Monday 12th January 2015. | MR MR |