Appointment of the Referendum Commission (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey on behalf of the States Greffe and published on 10 April 2018.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

​Request

Article 2 of the Referendum Law 2017 says that the Privileges and Procedures Committee (PPC) are responsible for appointing the members of the Referendum Commission. It also says they mustn't appoint someone unless that person has been recommended to them by a panel made up of the Greffier of the States and two other people nominated by PPC.

Of the five people recently appointed as members of the Referendum Commission, whose brief biographies are given in R128/2017 is anyone a direct relative of the Greffier of the States? If yes, which member(s) and how are they related to the Greffier?

Response

For the purposes of this response, ‘direct relative’ is taken to include a person’s spouse, civil partner or cohabitee.

One member of the Referendum Commission is a direct relative of the Greffier of the States: Ms. Charlotte Littleboy is the spouse of the Greffier.

The Greffier of the States was not involved in the appointment of the members of the Referendum Commission. The Greffier withdrew from the process. To meet the requirements of Article 2 of the Referendum (Jersey) Law 2017, the Greffier’s place was taken by an Assistant Greffier of the States as Acting Greffier. Under Article 41(15) of the States of Jersey Law, the functions of the Greffier (and Deputy Greffier) may be discharged in this way by an officer of the States Greffe in the event of the absence or incapacity of the Greffier and Deputy Greffier.

In accordance with the provisions of the Referendum (Jersey) Law 2017, the Acting Greffier sat on the interview panel for the Referendum Commission with the Chairman of the Employment Forum and a former employee of the Electoral Commission in the U.K. The interview panel was chaired by a member of the Jersey Appointments Commission, although he was not involved in scoring or recommending candidates. All members of the interview panel were aware of the connection between the Greffier and one of the applicants.

This response has been issued on behalf of the States Greffe. The States Greffe is responsible for the information held by (and on behalf of) both itself and the States Assembly.  Neither the States Assembly nor the States Greffe form part of the Government of Jersey and the Government was not involved either in the examination and retrieval of any information required for this response, nor in the drafting of the response itself.​​