Commissioner for Standards investigation (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey on behalf of the States Greffe and published on 31 January 2019.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

With regard to the Commissioner for Standards investigation into a complaint of a Breach of the Code of Conduct for Elected Members by Deputy M.R. Higgins - R.7/2019 which unsurprisingly ended up with no disciplinary action against Deputy M.R. Higgins anyway. I would like to know the following:

A

The total cost of this Investigation?

B

The hourly charge out rate of Paul Kernaghan, C.B.E., Q.P.M?

C

The time constraints implemented for such Investigations, if any, seeing as this investigation cut across a General Election?

D

What value for money Paul Kernaghan, C.B.E., Q.P.M is giving to the tax payer since the Code of Conduct for Elected Members was moved away from the Privilege and Procedure Committee?

Response

A

The Commissioner for Standards charged for two half-day’s work in relation to this investigation which equates to £400.00. Other incidental administration costs associated with the investigation were included in the normal day-to-day business of the States Greffe and were not costed separately.

B

The Commissioner for Standards charges £400.00 per day which equates to £54.05 per hour.

C

There are no time constraints implemented on investigations undertaken by the Commissioner for Standards. In relation to investigations that cut across a General Election, paragraph 9 of the Commissioner for Standard’s Statement maintains that: “If a member is under investigation when the member leaves the States the investigation terminates at that point.” Further information on the Commissioner for Standard’s Statement can be found at the link below:

Commissioner for Standard’s Statement

D

The purposes for implementing the Commissioner for Standards (Jersey) Law 2017 were not primarily economic. As a result, a detailed analysis of the value for money to the tax payer since the Code of Conduct for Elected Members was moved away from the Privilege and Procedure Committee has not been conducted and the information is not held.

Further information on the reasons behind the implementation of the Commissioner for Standards (Jersey) Law 2017 can be found within the report accompanying the draft law at the link below:

Commissioner for Standards (Jersey) Law 2017

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.​​