Chairmen's Committee - Approved Committee Minutes - 7 July 2015

Present

Deputy  J.A.N.  Le  Fondré,  President  and  Chairman,  Corporate  Services Scrutiny Panel

Deputy L.M.C. Doublet , Vice-President and Chairman, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel

Deputy S.M. Brée, Chairman, Economic Affairs Scrutiny Panel

Deputy R. Renouf , Chairman, Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel Deputy A.D. Lewis , Chairman, Public Accounts Committee

Deputy D. Johnson , Vice-Chairman, Environment, Housing and Technical Services Scrutiny Panel

Apologies

Connétable A.S. Crowcroft , Chairman, Environment, Housing and Technical Services Scrutiny Panel

Absent

In attendance

 Mr T. Oldham , Scrutiny Manager

Ref Back

Agenda matter

Action

1.  Records of meetings

The Committee approved the records of its meetings held on 9th, 11th, 15th, 18th and 22nd June 2015, which were signed accordingly by the President.  

09.06.15 Item 2

2.  Privileges and Procedures Committee: update

The Committee considered a briefing paper on the deliberations of the above Committee.

510/1(52)

3.  Activity Reports

The  Committee  noted  the  Panel  and  Public  Accounts  Committee activity reports.

The  Committee recalled  its  previous  discussions  regarding  Panels encountering challenges in receiving access to information from the Executive  or  in  receiving  appropriate  notification  in  respect  of significant policy developments. It was noted that this unsatisfactory situation  continued  in  some  areas,  most  notably  for  the  Public Accounts Committee and the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel, and would again be raised by the President at his next meeting with the Chief Minister.

The  Committee  also  recalled  its  previous  discussion  of  the responsibilities  of  all  Scrutiny  Members  with  regard  to  documents received in confidence by Panels. It was noted that the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel had agreed the following framework to help avoid any such instances:

 All documents received in confidence will be respected by all Panel Members.

JLF

• If any Panel Member wants to challenge the confidential nature of any documents received, that Member will raise any issues, in the first instance, at the next Panel meeting for further discussion.

• Should any challenges occur in the future, open dialogue will take place with the Minister.

It was agreed that a message from the President would be circulated on behalf of the Committee, requesting all Panels to consider this framework with a view to it being adopted across the Scrutiny function.

It was also agreed that in order for Panels to be more informed as to why a particular document may be classified as confidential, Panels would be invited to consider writing to Ministers to request that, from this point on when forwarding documents, Departments should advise a Panel of the exemption Article number as to why a document was classified  as  confidential  in  accordance  with  the  Freedom  of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

JLF/TO

All

09.06.15 Item 4

513/45

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

The President informed the Committee that the Council of Ministers' timetable for the release of information to his Panel and the lodging of the  MTFP  remained  under  pressure.  This  was  causing  additional timetabling challenges not only for the Panel's own work, but also to the agreed work of the other Panels in informing that Review.

It was noted that the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel continued to work with its advisers on a framework of areas on which it would like to  receive  information  from  individual  Panels  in  relation  to  the Department(s) within their remits, and was meeting again on Monday 13th July with the intention of finalising and circulating the framework to all Chairmen. Despite the very short timeframe and the difficulty of accessing witnesses and information over the summer recess, it was agreed that Panels would nevertheless try to achieve the requested feedback  to  the  Corporate  Services  Scrutiny  Panel,  with  the  final deadline to be advised by the Panel when it circulated the framework.

All

09.06.15 Item 5

510/1(5)

5.  Code  of  Practice  for  engagement,  for  the  purposes  of Scrutiny, between elected Members conducting Scrutiny and Ministers and Assistant Ministers

The Committee noted research that had been undertaken into the situation in other jurisdictions on matters relating to the compliance section of the draft Code. It was agreed that the Committee would meet again at the close of the next States meeting, specifically to consider the research in more detail and to agree next steps with regard to the drafting of the Code.

TO

09.06.15 Item 6

510/1(64)

6.  Blackberries/mobile devices

The Committee recalled that it had agreed the following options for Chairmen of Scrutiny Panels to be afforded parity with Ministers in regard of access to mobile devices in carrying out their roles:

1. If a Chairman owned a Smartphone, he/she could opt to have mobileiron made available. This was already covered by the States Greffe for all States Members at £60 per annum;

2. Alternatively, he/she could request a Blackberry in accordance with the  current  contract.  Although  this  was  likely  to  be  discontinued shortly, the Chairmen's Committee agreed that it was important to gain parity as soon as possible, with the ability to move to the new system along with Ministers once this had been identified and activated by Information  Services.  A  cap  of  £40  per  month  (based  on  rental (£19.50) + calls) would be invoked in line with the policy guiding use by Ministers. However, if a Chairman was away on Scrutiny business then  a  case  could  be  made  prior  to  departure  that  £40  may  be exceeded, again in keeping with the policy for Executive Members.

The Committee was advised that the necessary administration had been completed as requested at its previous meeting, in order that the options could be activated and taken up by Chairman as required.

09.06.19 Item 7

511/1(42)

7.  Business Cards

The Committee received an update from the President with regard to a small trial of the highest quality card that could be used by States Greffe  Reprographics  to  produce  Scrutiny  business  cards.  Whilst appreciative of the trial, the President advised that the quality of the card had ultimately proved unsuitable, and it was agreed that quotes would be sought for the production of the cards from commercial printers.

TO

8.  Future Meeting

It  was  noted  that  the  next  scheduled  meeting  date  was  15th September 2015, 9.30am-11.30am, Le Capelain Room