Five year term plans defeated

Thursday 25 October 2018

Plans to extend a deputy's term of office to five years have been thrown out by the States, who have also said no to cutting the number of deputies who sit on committees from five down to three.

Both proposals were debated as part of wider proposals to amend the States Rules of Procedure.

Most of the Rules of Procedure could be seen as relatively minor matters, including how long deputies are allowed for a lunch break during their monthly States meetings.

Cutting that from two hours to one and a half hours remains on the table, along with other changes like enabling the Greffier to "more efficiently manage the information being disseminated to the public, Members and the media." That essentially means how the government announces proposals which will be debated by the States.

Pictured: The Rules of Procedure cover a number of matters pertinent to States debates. 

Deputy Gavin St Pier lodged two amendments against the debate - one with Deputy Heidi Soulsby to shrink committee sizes from five deputies to three. That was defeated despite Deputy Soulsby arguing that it would force focus in their work.

Speaking previously she said, "from my point of view it is simply a natural progression following the reduction of Deputies arising from the machinery of government changes at the beginning of term.

"Also, it means that more members can focus on one Committee full time, rather than is the case at the moment."

Pictured Deputy Soulsby. 

Deputy St Pier's proposals for extending the length of a term of office from four years to five years, from the 2020 election, were also defeated.

Backed by Deputy Peter Ferbrache it was suggested that five year terms of office could increase productivity. 

Deputy Peter Roffey and others argued that the change would fly in the face of the recent referendum result which saw Option A win the majority of votes, which promised people 38 deputies elected island wide, for four years.

Deputy Ferbrache previously said that while the option did explicitly state it would be island wide voting with four year terms, people had only voted for the island wide voting part, and the length of the terms was ancillary to that. 

Pictured top: Deputy Gavin St Pier.