Education and Home Affairs - Approved Panel Minutes - 3 October 2016

Present

Deputy L. M. C. Doublet , Chairman Deputy J. M. Maçon, Vice-Chairman Deputy T. A. Vallois

Deputy S. Y. Mezec

Apologies

Absent

In attendance

Mr M. Robbins, Scrutiny Officer.

Mr N. Watkins, Deputy Governor HM Prison. (Item 1 only)

Mr D. Le Marquand, Policy Officer, Constitutional Affairs. (Item 1 only) Ms T. Graves, Assistant Law Draftsman. (Item 1 only)

Ref Back

Agenda matter

Action

Item 6 12.09.16

516/43

1.  Prison Board of Visitors

The  Panel  welcomed  officers  from  the  Prison,  Community  and Constitutional Affairs and Law Drafting Office who provided a briefing on the Draft Prison (Independent Prison Monitoring Board) (Jersey) Regulations 201-. Several areas of the regulations were discussed in detail and the officers took away options for amendments to the draft. The Panel thanked the officers and noted that the draft Regulations fulfilled  the  recommendation  contained  within  the  Panel's  report S.R.9/2015 Prison Board of Visitors' requiring the Chief Minister to take a proposition to the States that removed the Jurats from the Prison Board of Visitors and replaced them with independent members.

Item 3 04.07.16

516/46

2.  Higher Education

The Panel noted that a debate had been scheduled in the States for Tuesday 11th October on R 51/2016 Higher Education Funding'. The Panel agreed to wait for the debate to be completed before agreeing to any  work  it  intended to  undertake.  Scoping  documents  were  to  be drafted  and  a  briefing  was  to  be  arranged  from  the  officer  in  the Education  Department  who  was  responsible  for  Higher  Education Funding. This was to take place on 19th October 2016.

The lead Member for the review, Deputy J. M. Maçon, was to meet with the Scrutiny Officer to discuss the scoping.

JM/MR

Item 7 04.07.16

516/44

3.  School Starting Age

The Panel recalled its decision to draft the report for School Starting Age once it had finished its work on the MTFP Addition. It delegated the responsibility for the drafting to the Chairman, who was to liaise with the Scrutiny Officer to undertake the work.

LD/MR

Item 2 15.09.16

516/36(3)

4.  Medium Term Financial Plan Addition

The Panel undertook an evaluation of the effectiveness of the process of the review in accordance with Article 11.21 of the Code of Practice for Scrutiny Panels. It recognised that the timing for the review had caused significant problems for the Panel. It was also accepted that this was a problem which was out of its control.

That having been agreed, the Panel recognised and discussed the following areas:

• Actions needed to be clarified at the end of discussion points during meetings.
• The Panel needed clearer documentation on the work expected to be undertaken by advisors.
• The Education Minister had complained about having to meet with Scrutiny.
• Ministers and Officers needed to be more available to the Panel during the next MTFP.
• The thanks of the Panel for assistance with the review was to be sent  to  the  Minister  for  Home  Affairs  and  the  staff  of  her department.
• Interviewing the unions was very useful for the Panel and the thanks of the Panel were to be forwarded to them, including an invitation to maintain open dialogue in the future.

The Chairmen's Committee were to be asked by the Chairman to reflect on the MTFP process as a whole.

MR

5.  Deferral of agenda items

All other items on the agenda were deferred until the next meeting

MR

6.  Future Meetings

The  next  meeting  was  moved  from  7th  November  2016  to  14th November 2016. It would be held between 09.30am and 12.00 in the Blampied Room of the States building.

MR