New agreement between CI Law Enforcements

Tuesday 19 February 2019

A new memorandum of understanding has been agreed between Guernsey and Jersey's law enforcement bodies.

This comes following a visit from Jersey’s Home Affairs and Justice Committee to Guernsey, to meet with Home Affairs, review and then sign the document. It pledges closer co-operation and collaborative working.

Home Affairs (Deputies Victoria Oliver, Rob Prow, Mary Lowe, Richard Graham and Marc Leadbeater) met the Jersey representatives and discussed a number of matters. 

Home President, Deputy Mary Lowe, said: “As two small island jurisdictions we face many of the same issues and it makes perfect sense for us to share ideas, share knowledge and potentially even in the future share facilities to tackle these common areas. We have a long established working relationship with Home Affairs in Jersey and I am delighted to have signed an MoU which helps formalise that connection and which I firmly believe will benefit both islands in the areas of Justice and Law Enforcement.

“It was a very informative day for us both, and it has been a pleasure to show Jersey’s Minister and Assistant Minister Home Affairs around many areas of our responsibility.”

As Les Nicolles inches toward capacity, transferring prisoners to Jersey has been touted as a potential solution. 

Visits to Les Nicolles prison and the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre took place during the visit, and allowed the Jersey representatives to see how things were done in the Bailiwick. Talks about offender management, what would need to be put in place to transfer prisoners between the islands, should the need arise and the Justice Review were all items on a busy agenda.

This was something recently raised as a potential solution to rising prisoner populations in Guernsey during a States meeting - Deputy Lowe said Jersey's prison could have the capacity to take some local offenders. 

Jersey’s Home Affairs Minister, Connétable Len Norman, said it was essential to strengthen the two island's relationship: “It is important to hold regular meetings so we can continue to strengthen our joint working in areas like offender management. Our productive working relationship provides mutually beneficial links between our two governments, which are in the long term interests of both islands. We can learn a great deal by sharing our plans and experience with our Guernsey colleagues.”