Submissions - CEHA Review of the Proposed Government Plan 23-26 – Minister for Home Affairs - 9th No

Deputy Catherine Curtis

Chair, Children, Education and Home Affairs Panel

VIA EMAIL

9 November 2022

Dear Chair,

Government Plan 2023-2026

Thank you for your letter of 2 November in relation the Government Plan. Please find below answers to your questions, which I hope will assist the Panel in their Review. I look forward to discussing in further detail at our hearing later this week.

1. Please could you provide a full list of projects and programmes to be delivered under:

1. the JHA Head of Expenditure

Revenue:

• I-JHA-GP23-001 Parish Registrations

• I-JHA-GP23-002 Ambulance Service

• I-JHA-GP23-003 Fire and Rescue Service

• I-JHA-GP23-004 Combined control room

• I-JHA-GP23-005 Brexit - Increased Activity and Border Compliance

• I-JHA-GP23-006 Governance and Performance

• I-JHA-GP23-007 Jersey Care Commission - Regulation Management

• I-JHA-GP23-008 TETRA Extension

Capital:

• Replacement Assets and Minor Capital

• Replacement of Aerial Ladder Platform

• Army and Sea Cadets Headquarters (IHE Supplying Dept)

• Ambulance, Fire & Rescue Headquarters (IHE Supplying Dept)

• Prison Improvement Works (IHE Supplying Dept)

• Next Passport Project

• Electronic Patient Records

2. the SoJP Head of Expenditure.

Revenue:

• Police Resourcing

• Victim Support

• Associated Costs of Domestic Abuse Law

Capital:

• Firearms range

• Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC)

• Replacement Assets and Minor Capital

The details provided above are based on the list of business cases included in the proposed Government plan 2023 – 2026.

2. Please could you confirm whether the total JHA budget of approximately £35.2 million directly corresponds to your Ministerial portfolio?

No

a.  If not, please could you outline any differences.

Health and Safety Inspectorate is the only area where the budget is operationally in Justice and Home Affairs (JHA), but the Ministerial responsibility is different – in this instance it is with the Minister for Social Security.

3. Please could you confirm whether the total SoJP budget of approximately £27 million directly corresponds to your Ministerial portfolio?

Yes

a.  If not, please could you outline any differences. Not applicable.

4. JHA is projected to have approximately £4.5 million of income earned through operations in 2023. Please could you provide detail about the source of this income?

5. SoJP is projected to have £234,000 of income earned through operations in 2023. Please could you provide detail about the source of this income?

6. The previous Government Plan identified £1.7 million of efficiencies to be found by the Minister for Home Affairs in 2022. Are you able to confirm if those efficiencies have been made?

The majority have been made. There is £255,000 remaining within JHA, which will be made in 2023.

7. JHA has targeted £144,000 of value for money savings in 2023. Please could you provide a breakdown of those savings.

2023 savings will be offset using non-pay inflation in the first instance, in line with other Government departments. The services continue to seek efficiencies wherever possible, therefore non-pay inflation will be released as and when savings are identified.

8. SoJP has targeted £117,000 of value for money savings in 2023. Please could you provide a breakdown of those savings.

2023 savings will be offset using non-pay inflation in the first instance, in line with other government departments. The service constantly seeks to find efficiencies wherever possible, therefore non-pay inflation will be released as and when savings are identified.

9. In a table format, if possible, please could you confirm the number of FTE (full time equivalent) roles, number of staff employed and current open vacancies as of 31st October 2022 in the following services:

1. States of Jersey Prison Service.
2. Jersey Customs and Immigration Service.
3. States of Jersey Ambulance Service.
4. States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service.
5. Health and Safety Inspectorate.
6. Jersey Field Squadron.
7. Justice and Home Affairs Directorate.

viii.  States of Jersey Police Service.

10. Please could you provide a more detailed breakdown of the following expenditure, as detailed in the statement of comprehensive net expenditure for JHA:

1. Staff costs;
2. Other operating expenses;
3. Grants and subsidies payments; and
4. Finance costs.

11. Please could you provide a more detailed breakdown of the following expenditure, as detailed in the statement of comprehensive net expenditure for SoJP:

1. Staff costs; and
2. Other operating expenses.

Emergency Services

12. The Panel has compared the number of FTE staff estimated for 2023 in the previous Government Plan to the proposed Government Plan and notes that the FTE for the States of Jersey Ambulance Service (SoJAS) has reduced from 82 to 78. Please can you provide the rationale for the apparent reduction in SoJAS overall FTE staffing levels projected for 2023 in Government Plan 2023-2026?

The difference is due to the transfer of 17 Control Room staff to the JHA Directorate and out of Ambulance. The investment in the 2023 Government Plan provides for an increase in FTE of frontline staff for Ambulance, as below:

Government Plan 2022  82 GP23 investment  13 Transfer of CCR to JHA Directorate  (17) Government Plan 2023  78

a.  Please could you confirm the job roles / grades of each of the FTEs?

The staff transferred are the Combined Control Room team, which is mainly Grade 7 Controllers.

There has not been a reduction of 4 FTE in the Ambulance Service, as can be seen above.

13. Please can you explain why the Net Revenue Expenditure for SoJAS (per the Service Level analysis table in the annex) is £387k higher in 2023 when compared with Government Plan 2022-2025 Annex, when there has been a proposed increase of £1million in Revenue Expenditure Growth funding?

This is due to the movement of the budget for the Combined Control Room into the JHA Directorate rather than the Ambulance Service.

14. Please can you confirm where the following additional revenue programmes are allocated within the service level analysis for Justice and Home Affairs (as detailed in the Annex)?

1. Combined Control Room; JHA Directorate
2. Jersey Care Commission – Regulation Management; Ambulance Service and
3. Governance and Performance.

Inspection Costs – JHA Directorate

Assistant Emergency Planning Officer – Emergency Planning, which is in the Fire & Rescue budget

15. Please could you provide the panel with a breakdown of, and further detail relating to, the £24.4 million of funding that has previously been approved for the Ambulance, Fire and Rescue Headquarters' major project.

This funding was based on the estimated cost of building a combined Ambulance, Fire and Rescue Headquarters on the current Fire and Rescue site at Rouge Bouillon, further to this emerging as the preferred location in the site selection feasibility study, which was completed in 2020.

This would have delivered a 5335m2 station where both services could be co-located on a single site comprised of the current Fire and Rescue site and the former Police HQ site. The former Police HQ would have been demolished and the existing arsenal building, currently part of the Fire and Rescue site, was to be retained.

This project is on hold pending resolution of the site selection discussions between CYPES, JHA and Jersey Property Holdings, and then appropriate recommendations to Ministers. It is anticipated that the detail and funding will need to be reviewed and reconfigured once an appropriate solution is determined.

a.  Please can you advise whether the Total Project Approval amount allocated to the Ambulance, Fire and Rescue Headquarters Major Project had been adjusted to account for inflation in Government Plan 2022-2025?

It has not, as the project is on hold.

TETRA Extension

16. Please can you provide a breakdown of the £750,000 additional revenue requested to extend Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) use to 2026?

It is anticipated that the TETRA based radio system will need to continue in operational use until a point between 2026 and 2030; it is likely that the extension will be late into this period.

This will require a refresh of subscriber (vehicle mobile and handheld radio units and ancillary equipment); this will cost around £500,000. Further costs to refresh IT hardware (the control' element of the system) as well as some engineering works will also be required and, at this stage, are estimated to cost around £250,000.

17. Please can you advise why the cost has increased from £45,000 per annum (as per the previous Government Plan 2022-2025 Annex) to £250,000 per annum?

The £45,000 increase was in respect of the Service User Agreement for Motorola, which had not previously been included in JHA base budget.

The £250,000 per annum is for the maintenance of the system, as set out in question 16.

18. When do you expect to end the extend and replace strategy and replace the TETRA system?

At this stage, the operational and engineering assumptions are that the extend' element of the strategy will include 2029 and, possibly, 2030. Critical (emergency) communications are, in strategic terms, at a threshold past which it is likely to move from the TETRA based radio communications to a data based 4G provision. This is being led, in the UK, by the Home Office sponsored Emergency Services Network' (ESN), delivered by the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP).

ESN will move all UK emergency services from the TETRA based Airwave system to a 4G system supplied, on behalf of government, by a partnership of telecommunications providers. ESN is experiencing delays but is now expected to commence delivery in 2024 and for Airwave to be replaced by the end of 2026. Jersey will need to consider whether it can seek to access the ESN, use the development of 4G based technology by commercial operators to replicate an ESN system locally (much like the current relationship between the Jersey system and Airwave), or whether it will be unable to make such a change and simply replace the TETRA based system with another, using the same technology.

There are significant operational and information based advantages in moving to a data based network. In assuming a 2029 or 2030 timetable, contingency is allowed for slippage in the ESN rollout, for the UK experience to be considered and also for optimised value for money from the immediate and necessary extend' element to be achieved.

Parish Registrations

19. Please can you describe the work that was undertaken by your department to facilitate the transfer of the Office of the Superintendent Registrar to JHA?

Officers are in discussions to ensure a smooth transition in relation to line management, facilities and processes. The Director General has met with the Superintendent Registrar to discuss the transition. The Office of the Superintendent Registrar remains with Customer and Local Services until 31 December 2022 and I have sought an assurance that there will be no diminution in their support to the OSIR during that time.

20. £207k has been allocated to Parish Registrations each year from 2023 to 2026, please can you advise of any costs associated with the transfer of Ministerial accountability for the Office of the Superintendent Registrar to JHA?

No costs have been incurred by either CLS or JHA to date.

21. Does the £207k allocation include any upgrades or new computer systems to log Island births, deaths and marriages?

No. This allocation is for additional staffing, which is necessary due to the increased demand on the OSIR since taking responsibility for Parish Registration.

22. Has the Office of the Superintendent Registrar also taken responsibility for keeping and maintaining the records of historic Parish Registrations?

Some records remain with certain Parishes but will be transferred to the OSIR in due course. Some have already been deposited with Jersey Archive and will remain there. The remainder have been transferred to the OSIR and are stored in a separate secure location.

Yours sincerely

Deputy Helen Miles Minister for Home Affairs