Clothier Report Could See A New Government System In Jersey By 2002

Mandy Robinson, Tax-news.com, London

30 March 2001

Earlier this year the Review Panel on the Machinery of Government in Jersey, chaired by Sir Cecil Clothier, released a report recommending fundamental changes to the Island's system of government.

Known as the Clothier Report, it was carried out in response to a large number of criticisms directed at the government by the public and politicians alike. Common complaints largely revolved around the government's lack of a central executive arm to help identify a clear set of policies and make comprehensive decisions.

The Clothier Report has identified certain areas of the executive committees that make up the government that are inadequately managed. For a start the report says there are too many committees and too many members of the States Assembly. Most of these members sit on numerous committees which allows them to hold a position on the executive arm with the result that there is little effective scrutiny of the government's work.

A MORI poll was also conducted in tandem with the report with the conclusions that voters on the Island believe they do not have enough of a voice in how Jersey is governed. The majority of the one thousand people in the poll said that the States Assembly takes too long in its decision-making with its over-abundance of committees and lacks dynamic leadership.

Consequently, say the Clothier Report's authors, the number of members in the States Assembly should be restricted to between 42 and 44 members of equal status. Members would stand for election together during one general election, which would be at intervals of no less than 4 but no more than 5 years.

Furthermore the committee system should be replaced by a ministerial system governed by a Council of Ministers which would have power over government departments. The report recommends that the new government system, if adopted, be open and transparent with meetings of the scrutiny committees to be held in public.

These recommendations, if implemented, would mean a change to Jersey's government system of revolutionary proportions, the Review Panel has stated that it is of the firm opinion that any change to improve the current system would have to be a fundamental one, The Panel stated: 'The weaknesses we have found in the function and structure of the States are, in our opinion, serious. It is the weakness of a national assembly, the members of which are so divided among themselves that they have difficulty in arriving at and maintaining a decision, which permits the balance of power to pass into the hands of a very few people. This is an unhealthy development in any society, however honourable and well intentioned those few may be.'

The report's proposals are currently under consideration by the States Assembly. Most members have said they would like to have made their decision by the end of this year and if they follow the general public's lead the Clothier Report's recommendations could form the foundation of a new system of government implemented in time for the Autumn 2002 elections.

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