Deputy Mary Lowe, President of the Committee for Home Affairs, said that clarification is urgently needed.

"Any suggestion that our Committee has not operated strategically is simply not true. People need only look at the context in which we commissioned the report in the first place to see that. The Committee was formed in May 2016 and immediately recognised that we needed an inspection of law enforcement before we could determine its future strategic direction. The inspection was commissioned within nine months of taking office. In doing so, we also opened ourselves up as part of the inspection process, again recognising that the view of external inspectors would be invaluable for our Committee’s future deliberations," she said. 

Deputy Lowe has also confirmed she will discuss the inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services when she delivers a statement in the States at the end of the month updating the island on the Committee’s work.

Pictured clockwise from top right: Deputy May Lowe, Deputy Marc Leadbeater, Deputy Richard Graham, Deputy Victoria Oliver, Deputy Rob Prow. 

Deputy Lowe was not alone in finding fault with the Law Enforcement inspection. Vice President of Home Affairs - and former head of Guernsey Customs - Deputy Rob Prow, said: 

"I’d like to address the suggestion that law enforcement is in some kind of “halfway house”. I think the position is very clear for law enforcement, in that it’s all about collaboration, collaboration, collaboration. Full merger is not on the table and this Committee has never suggested it is.

"The Committee under its mandate does have “oversight” for issues of quality of service and we also have a duty to pass on representations we receive. This is not giving any direction but rather is us feeding in concerns or comments. It is for law enforcement to determine what if any action is taken on representations. The report makes some very sensible recommendations which can help improve this process and the Committee is absolutely committed to deliver on that."

Deputy Chris Green, who leads the Scrutiny Management Committee, said there are a number of concerns to address though. When the review was released earlier this month, he said "the HMIC report on Law Enforcement has, amongst other things, highlighted some substantial concerns about governance and IT provision. Both Home Affairs and Policy and Resources have questions to answer on this."

Scrutiny will hold a public hearing with the Committee for Home Affairs about the HMIC report on Wednesday the 5th of December. The hearing will specifically refer to the concerns about ICT and governance that were mentioned in the report.

— Chris Green (@deputycgreen) November 14, 2018

He will now be asking those questions, at the next public scrutiny hearing, next month.

Pictured top: Deputies Chris Green and Mary Lowe.