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Details about potential service cuts were watered down and pensioner contribution rates reduced in late changes made by Policy & Resources to its tax package, a confidential paper allegedly found among recycled waste paper has shown.
A copy of the paper and its cover sheet was passed to Express this morning, with the anonymous person saying they found it in the public newspaper recycling at Waitrose, something that can not be verified at this time.
Also included in the bundle was a photocopy of what appears to be an envelope in which the papers were contained which has in handwriting Deputy Ferbrache’s name, the word 'confidential' and 'P&R 22/11 Additional Paper' written on it.
Other papers had the date 22 November on them.
Pictured: One of the papers passed to Express by an anonymous reader this morning.
Deputy Ferbrache’s response can be read HERE.
The paper was discussed by the P&R committee on 22 November and shows that Employment & Social Security President Deputy Peter Roffey had expressed concerns that the contribution rate that was going to be applied to pensioners was too high.
The rate in an earlier draft of P&R’s review was 4.4% - he successfully suggested it should be dropped to 4%.
Pictured: Deputy Peter Roffey.
“This alternative has been modelled and it reduces the overall revenue generation from £55.3m. to £54.6m. and has little impact on the overall distributions,” the cover sheet produced for P&R said.
P&R’s final report includes a section covering the responses where it had asked what service cuts the committees thought would be needed if they needed to reduce their budgets by 15%.
The committees’ senior officers had raised concerns about this information and Education, Sport & Culture president Andrea Dudley-Owen requested that the committee presidents discussed this with Policy Council political representatives.
That meeting took place on 18 November.
Pictured: One of the papers shared with Express, which were allegedly found in a public recycling bin.
“Committee presidents expressed a wide range of views with some comfortable with the release of the content, but requesting greater consistency in the presentation; while others would prefer less detail to be presented, expressing concerns that the inclusion of this information would “scare the horses,” the cover note stated.
In response, officers redrafted the section to “improve the consistency of the presentations” and invited P&R members to discuss how they wanted to move forward.
The draft of that section which was discussed on 22 November was different to the final report that was published on 28 November.
For example, in the published report the section for Economic Development omitted specific mention of a reduction of up to £700,000 in the budgets for grant and support schemes which would mean substantial reductions in payments to Guernsey Finance, Locate Guernsey and the Digital Greenhouse which was in the draft.
Education’s explanation of its concerns about any of the service cuts were beefed up in the final report.
Environment & Infrastructure’s response was altered so that one of the revenue raising measures it thought would be needed went from saying “introducing paid parking in various location” in the draft to “introducing charges for corporate and commuter parking in some locations”.
The Home Affairs section was also changed.
It did not provide any new initiatives, but instead referred back to opportunities identified in 2021.
Pictured: Deputy Ferbrache has said the papers were "not sensitive".
The final report drops reference to restructuring the prison service to reduce staff numbers, a review of licensing fees and charges, recovery of administrative costs from local traders and import/export firms utilising customs services and reduction of front-line counter services.
Instead it references tagging as an alternative to custodial sentences, modernisation of fixed penalty notices, adoption of the National Single Online Home web-based platform for digital, contact and crime reporting and outsourcing of ‘court group’ prison officers.
Confidential tax review paper found in public "not sensitive" says Ferbrache
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