Doubts cast on long-awaited review of justice policy

Tuesday 15 June 2021

Home Affairs is on track to reveal a framework for a future Justice Policy - however a warning has been sounded from its President that his Committee does not have enough resources to do it justice.

An independent report was published in March 2020, outlining 43 recommendations for Guernsey’s justice strategy at the time.

Guernsey’s justice policy covers a massive range of issues, including criminal sentencing, restorative justice, handling substance misuse, and victim support. 

“We have highlighted [developing a framework] as a priority in the Government Work Plan, however the whole justice piece is massive,” said President of Home Affairs, Deputy Rob Prow.

Pictured: Gemma Buckland, above, from ‘Do It Justice’ and Sophie du Mont from ‘Crest’ conducted the original independent review into Guernsey's justice system.

Deputy Prow was asked for an update during Monday's Scrutiny Management Committee hearing. 

“There is no way we can deliver all these recommendations,” he conceded. “It is not a reasonable expectation for us to do so, we need more resources to do it justice.”

Despite this, Deputy Prow hopes to have a justice framework ready in the agreed timeframe. 

“You said when pitching for the presidential role that we’d see the framework before December 2022, is that still the case,” asked the President of Scrutiny, Deputy Yvonne Burford.

“I certainly hope that we can,” replied Deputy Prow. “When I said that, the methodology of how that was to be delivered was not clear. It is now.”

“I’m putting fellow deputies on notice that this is a massive piece of work. We will come back to the Assembly with our best effort,” he said.

Pictured: Deputy Prow was questioned by the Scrutiny Management Committee, including Deputies Fairclough, Burford and John Dyke.

Deputy Prow said considerable work had been done to prioritise work on domestic violence protection orders and reviewing sentencing for sexual offenders, however he refused to comment on which other recommendations were being prioritised.

“I don’t think ranking them in terms of importance is a good idea,” he said.

Many of the recommendations have been raised in some form through the Government Work Plan, which is set to be debated again in July.

Pictured: One of the recommendations focused on promoting tackling sexual violence within the framework. 

Deputy Prow went to great lengths to emphasis the tough financial position all committees have found themselves in, arguing that some work streams are inevitably dropped when finances are funnelled into more essential services.

“I’ll say this – the margins are extremely tight. Demand on services has increased but our budget hasn’t,” he said.

You can read the full report and its policy letter HERE.