Reduction of deputy numbers knocked out in knife edge votes as review backed

Friday 13 December 2024

A move to cut the number of deputies by 10 before the election has been sunk.

Instead, members have narrowly backed having a review done by the States Assembly and Constitution Committee next term which could also encompass related issues like the structure of government and the number of committees.

The numbers debate, which began in earnest on Thursday morning and continued most of this morning, took a series of turns before settling on a resolution,

In the end, it was Deputy Peter Roffey's amendment for the SACC review, which knocked out any option for a reduction, which won the day.

It passed by 20 votes to 19.

Yet again, it was another extremely close vote - Deputy Neil Inder's attempts to get a cut of five deputies on the table only lost out late yesterday in a tied vote and he was moving this morning to try again with a five/three option but never got the chance to try.

During debate, seconder of Roffey amendment, Deputy Andy Cameron said: "The status quo, in my opinion, is functioning adequately. However, it is clear that some members may feel that it no longer meets the needs of our government or our island. For those members, I believe this amendment provides a pragmatic and efficient mechanism to explore possible reforms, rather than rushing into poorly considered changes."

Deputy Peter Ferbrache was among those urging action now instead.

"If we can't make this judgment, it's a reflection on us, because the public out there overwhelmingly thinks we should, not another two years, for another period of self indulgence and looking at our navels and scratching our heads," said the former Chief Minister.

Deputy Roffey was not convinced a review was even needed, but brought the amendment because of the reductions proposed in the original requete led by Deputy Mark Helyar.

"I don't think the most important thing that this Assembly has to decide is how many of us there should be and exactly how many committees there should be, and how many people should be on them, but the requete was brought and all this is saying is, if we're going to do these things, and if we're going to make these changes, let's do it in a considered and sensible way, and let's ask the committee that we have set up, charged with exactly the mandate to do this, to get on with it."

In closing, Deputy Helyar argued that members were voting in their own self interest which the public would see through.

"If we ask ourselves and look internally as to how this can be changed, it isn't going to. I would like to see an independent commission formed and run completely independently."

He suggested that there was a need for a requete to propose a referendum on executive government.

Yesterday members spent time debating whether to set up a special review committee that could report back with proposals on the issue, and how broad a mandate it should have. A proposal by Policy & Resources was passed, but is now overtaken by the Roffey review.