STATES MEMBERS RECESSES - NEED TO BE EXAMINED

The summer hols will soon be upon us again – but what do our elected States Members do?

Are they still obliged to be at the end of the ‘phone waiting for our calls? Do they continue to attend Scrutiny Panel meetings or other States activities or is the grand Royal Square Building just left to the pigeons and their friends?

At least one of our elected reps thinks that recess means no work at all!

Since we have our very first General Election year (in October) perhaps this anonymous Member would like to come clean before the voters and tax payers?

Do we expect our elected reps to be available for most of the year and how many weeks holiday should they take? This is what the Chairman’s Committee Panel thought last September and the PPC determination is not known but does anybody know who such recess taking States Member(s) might be? No prizes offered……

CHAIRMAN’S COMMITTEE PANEL

23 September 2010

Re States recesses – Member work load over such periods.

The Committee considered the unwillingness on the part of a States Member to undertake parliamentarian work of any nature during States recesses.

The reasoning behind this appeared to be that when the States were in recess the entire time could be a holiday period for Members.

Whilst the Committee considered it reasonable, indeed wise, that part of such periods could be taken as holiday, it was very concerned about this approach not only from a scrutiny perspective but from an overarching States perspective.

The Committee concluded that whilst it could challenge an individual Scrutiny Panel Member in respect of scrutiny work, it believed that this was a wider matter than being restricted to scrutiny and should be forwarded to the Privileges and Procedures Committee for it to consider whether to take the entire time as holiday and for no parliamentarian work to occur.

The Committee also agreed to recommend that, following deliberation, the Privileges and Procedures Committee should draw up an agreed protocol to advise all States Members of the expectation of Members regarding the appropriate use of States recesses.