Government Plan 2022-25 Scrutiny Review (Government Plan Review Panel) (S.R.21/2021): Joint Response of the Chief Minister and the Minister for Treasury and Resources

Findings

Comments

1

The general purpose of the Government Plan is understood by those who engage with the Government of Jersey.

The Council of Ministers welcomes this finding.

2

The  length  of  the  Government  Plan 2022-2025  and  the  associated  Annex makes  it  difficult  for  the  public  to engage with and there is no abridged version or summary.

The Council of Ministers accepts that a summary version of the Government Plan would be helpful.

3

Printed copies of the Government Plan were not readily available and the locations in which they were available were not well promoted.

The  Council  of  Ministers  accepts  that  copies should be more easily available at Parish Hall s and the Jersey Library and will make sure this is more widely promoted.

As  with  any  other  Proposition,  the  States Assembly Information Centre is responsible for providing printed copies of the Government Plan Proposition. The Government provided the Plan in  PDF  format  so  that  copies  could  be  easily

Findings

Comments

printed. Each bound copy of the Government Plan costs £32.63 each and so a balance of printing vs online access needs to be achieved to make sure there is good use of public resources.

4

The online version of the Government Plan  does  not  contain  adequate hyperlinks to assist in navigating the document  and  cross-referencing between different sections of the plan or the associated annex and accessibility options  do  not  appear  to  have  been promoted.

The Council of Ministers accepts that hyperlinks across the various sections of the plan and of the associated annex would be helpful.

5

Citizen's space' and Have your say' platform remain under-utilised and underpromoted as platforms and were not used to engage or canvas opinion from Islanders on any aspects of the Government Plan 2022-2025.

A series of live-streamed events, known as Ask the  Ministers:  Government  Plan  Specials', discussed the different aspects of the Plan and invited Islander's feedback. They were promoted on social media, through the radio, and in the Jersey Evening Post. For the next Plan, platforms like Citizen's space' and Have your say' will be investigated for their potential use.

It should be noted that the two Ask the Ministers' Government  Plan  Specials  attracted  more  than 150 Slido questions across the two evenings and had  7,300  views  on  Facebook  alone.   It  was decided  to  utilise  Ask  the  Ministers'  for  the Government Plan, following its previous success. This platform should be used again to encourage public engagement.

6

There  were  significant  delays  in supplying  information  requested  by Scrutiny as part of their reviews of the Government Plan 2022-2025.

Ministers  rely  on  operational  departments  to produce responses for scrutiny requests. As such, given the wide and extensive volume of questions from Panels, we cannot increase resource in every department,  and  we  try  to  prioritise  requests accordingly.

7

Delays  in  providing  information  to Scrutiny Panels have a direct impact on the provision of robust scrutiny and on the production of amendments, reports and comments.

Ministers  rely  on  operational  departments  to produce responses for scrutiny requests. As such, given the wide and extensive volume of questions from Panels, we cannot increase resource in every department,  and  we  try  to  prioritise  requests accordingly.

Findings

Comments

8

The  refusal  of  Ministers  to  provide information requested by Scrutiny calls the  transparency  of  the  Government Plan  process  and  the  willingness  to engage with scrutiny into question.

The CEHA Panel repeatedly requested sight of the school funding formula despite being advised on 1st November 2020, during a public hearing, that the work would not be completed until the end of December.  The  Minister  for  Children  and Education cannot provide information that does not exist and has now written to the Panel offering a briefing on the formula as this part of the work is complete.

9

Delays to reviews in some areas, such as the school sites review, has led to priority  items  slipping  down  the Council of Ministers' agenda.

Delays cannot always be avoided. Where this is the case, items are prioritised according to their need and alongside the competing demands of other items.

10

It is difficult to track projects which have been approved in previous plans but  which  have  subsequently  been removed  or  altered  and  funding reallocated. Further transparency would be  achieved  if  such  projects  were clearly marked.

The progress of delivery of the Government Plan programmes and projects is reported on online mid-year as part of the Mid-Year Review and annually  alongside  the  Annual  Report  and Accounts.

This provides significant, transparent information for the public, Scrutiny, PAC and others to hold the Government of Jersey, Ministers and Directors General  to  account  for  the  delivery  of  the Government  Plan  programmes  and  projects approved by the States Assembly each year.

11

There are eight projects contained in the Government Plan 2022-2025 which are denoted  as  "Fund  as  Required"  for which  business  cases  have  not  been included in the Government Plan as the potential cost of each project remains uncertain.

As discussed at Scrutiny hearings and subsequent correspondence, business cases were produced for these  projects,  and  suitable  provisions  for expenditure included in the General Reserve.

12

The  efficiencies  and  rebalancing programme  continues  to  use  one  off savings, both in preidentified items and as back-up measures. It is unclear what will be done to ensure £120 million of recurring  efficiencies  across  2020  to 2024  and  what  impact  on  public services these have had.

The delivery of efficiencies and rebalancing in the context of a pandemic remains challenging, but £31.8m of the £35m target for FY 2021 has been delivered. Efficiencies achieved to date (2020 and 2021) total some £56.8m of the target £60m over the 2 years. Of the savings achieved to date 97.7% are recurring. The non-recurring savings (£1.3m) and the shortfall (£3.7m) namely £5m will be carried  forward  and  added  to  the  target  in 2022. (Numbers remain subject to external audit review and may change)

Findings

Comments

The principle of  the  programme  is  to  deliver efficiencies, namely doing more or the same with less  funding or  increasing  revenue  return (excluding tax measures), rather than making cuts to services.

Recommendations

To

Accept/ Reject

Comments

Target date of action/ completion

1

The Council of Ministers should  commit  to producing  a  summary version  of  future Government Plans, which should be available as both a  printed  and  online document  once  the Government  Plan  is lodged.

CoM

Accept

It is accepted that a summary version of the Government Plan would be helpful.

October 2022

2

The Council of Ministers should review its policy on the  provision  of  printed versions  of  the Government Plan. Printed versions  (or  a  printable version)  of  future  and previous  Government Plans  should  be  made available  at  all  Parish Hall s, at the Jersey Library and at the States Assembly Information Centre.

CoM

Partially accept

Officers were not made aware of any unmet  demand  for  copies  of  the Government  Plan  during  the  lodging period.

As with any other Proposition, the States Assembly  Information  Centre  is responsible for providing printed copies (i.e. not bound) of the Government Plan Proposition which has appended to it the proposed Government Plan on request to members of the public.

Each  bound  copy  of  the  Government Plan costs £32.63 each. As such it does not appear to be a good use of public resource  to  print  many  bound  copies when demand is unclear.

However,  it  is  accepted  that  copies should be more easily available at Parish Hall s and the Jersey Library. This should

October 2022

Recommendations

To

Accept/ Reject

Comments

Target date of action/ completion

be  considered  alongside  the recommendation that a summary version of the Government Plan be available.

3

Future  versions  of  the Government Plan must be formatted  to  include hyperlinks  across  the various  sections  of  the plan and of the associated annex.

CM

Accept

It is accepted that this would be a helpful addition to the Government Plan.

October 2022

4

Consideration  should  be given  to  increased promotion  and  use  of existing  platforms  to canvas  the  views  of engaged  members  of  the public  during development  and  post lodging  of  future Government Plans.

CM

Neither accept nor reject

This  recommendation  will  be considered,  however  it  cannot  be accepted or rejected at this time for the following reasons.

It is assumed that by canvas the views' the Panel mean to consult'.

Consultation on the whole' Government Plan has not taken place over the last 3 Government Plans as it is simply not reasonable or practical to do so for the reasons  set  out  below.  Instead, consultation has taken place on a case- by-case  basis  on  key  aspects  of  the Government  Plan  over  the  preceding year.

This  recommendation  raises  the following  practical  issues  which  will need to be considered.

-  When/How should such consultation take  place?  The  next  Council  of Ministers  will  have  approximately 11 weeks to develop and agree its Common  Strategic  Policy  and Government  Plan.  There  will therefore be a particular challenge in seeking public views. Further, much of  the  Government  Plan  process takes place over the summer break when it is not, for obvious reasons, ideal to consult with the public.

October 2022

Recommendations

To

Accept/ Reject

Comments

Target date of action/ completion

- What the purpose of the consultation would be? The general position is that  consultation  should  only  take place  where  it  has  a  reasonable prospect of having an impact on the final decision to be made. We are not aware of any other Government that seeks,  annually,  to  consult  on  the totality  of  its  income  and expenditure plans for the next year.

- What  should  the  scale  of  such consultation be? With the time and resources available, is it possible or reasonable  to  consult  on  every aspect of the Government Plan? It may  be  possible  to  improve  the process  of  consultation  across  the preceding year on the key aspects of the Government Plan.

5

Ministers  and  officers must  ensure  that  the presentation  period  for policy provides sufficient time  for  meaningful  and effective  interaction  with Scrutiny  and  must urgently  review  its processes for approval of responses  in  order  to comply with the Code of Practice  for  Engagement between  Scrutiny  Panels and  the  Public  Accounts Committee  and  the Executive.

CoM

Neither accept nor reject

The Government Plan was lodged on 21 September 2021, adhering to the normal statutory lodging period, and therefore available to all States Members and the Public for almost three months.

As stated previously, Ministers rely on operational  departments  to  produce responses  for  scrutiny  requests.   We cannot  increase  resource  in  every department,  and  we  try  to  prioritise requests accordingly.

6

Projects which have been approved  in  previous plans,  but  which  have subsequently  been removed  or  altered  and funding reallocated should be clearly marked.

CM

Reject

The  Government  Plan  is  a  forward- looking document, it is not reflective. The approach has been to focus on what is  in  the  Plan  rather  than  a  detailed dissection of changes from the estimates in previous plans.

Recommendations

To

Accept/ Reject

Comments

Target date of action/ completion

Any  further  analysis  should  be incorporated  within  the  Mid-Year Review, which could, as the Panel states, include  projects  which  have  been removed,  altered  and  funding reallocated.

7

Quarterly  reporting including updated budgets should  be  introduced  for the duration of each of the projects  to  ensure accountability.

Min T&R

Accept

Changes to budgets are reported to the States as part of six-monthly reporting by the Treasury Minister.

Corporate  Reporting  (available  to Scrutiny) also includes information on Capital  Projects,  and  the  level  of information will be reviewed in line with this recommendation.

8

The Council of Ministers should, prior to May 2022, identify and communicate publicly a final figure of recurring efficiencies and impact of those, and one- off  measures,  on  public services across its term of office.

CoM

Neither Accept nor reject (already in place)

The  Government  already  provides  an update  on  rebalancing  as  part  of  the Annual  Accounts  and  six-monthly reporting  cycle,  which  meets  this requirement.