States members also received the second interim report from the Island’s Constitution Review Group.

This group was formed in 2005 and its latest report was commissioned by Jersey’s Constitutional Advisory Panel in December 2006.

It is part of an ongoing piece of work initiated by the Policy and Resources Committee in 2002.

The report is a contingency exercise, and does not look at the desirability or otherwise of independence - it is merely a technical assessment of the potential impact on the island if it were obliged to seek independence as a result of external pressure, it was explained.

The report additionally made some recommendations about possible administrative improvements which might assist the island’s external relations within the current constitutional structure.