Government of Jersey

Privileges and Procedures Committee emails (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey on behalf of the States Greffe and published on 15 September 2017.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

Please kindly provide all emails between the members of the Privileges and Procedures Committee (PPC) regarding the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry, Deputy Andrew Lewis and the hearing and report into his conduct between the date of publication of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry (3 July 2017) and the date of the release of the report into Deputy Andrew Lewis' conduct (18 August 2017).

Response

The information relating to the above request is absolutely exempt under Article 28 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Exemptions applied

Article 28 - States Assembly privileges

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if exemption from the obligation to disclose it under this Law is required to avoid an infringement of the privileges of the States Assembly.

(2) Except as provided by paragraph (3), a certificate signed by the Greffier of the States certifying that exemption is required to avoid an infringement of the privileges of the States Assembly is conclusive evidence of that fact.

(3) A person aggrieved by the decision of the Greffier of the States to issue a certificate under paragraph (2) may appeal to the Royal Court on the grounds that the Greffier did not have reasonable grounds for issuing the certificate.

(4) The decision of the Royal Court on the appeal shall be final.

Justification for Exemption

The Privileges and Procedures Committee (PPC) is appointed under Standing Order 127 of the States of Jersey. Standing Order 128 details the Terms of Reference of PPC and includes “the enforcement of the code of conduct for members of the States and in this context to promote high standards amongst members of the States and to champion and defend the privileges of members of the States”.

The information requested was generated during the course of a PPC investigation into the code of conduct of a States member and is directly relevant to proceedings of the Assembly – in this case, the investigation into the alleged breach of the code of conduct, the hearing with Deputy Andrew Lewis and the preparation of PPC’s report to the Assembly. Disclosure of this information would be an infringement of the privileges of the States Assembly, particularly the Assembly’s right to decide its own internal procedures, including deciding on what information to put in the public domain and the timing and manner of such publication, without interference from any outside authority. This is a fundamental protection for a democratically-elected legislature and the existence of this privilege in Jersey was confirmed by the Royal Court in the case of Syvret v. Bailhache & Hamon (1998 JLR 128).

The Privileges and Procedures Committee has the option of publishing emails between Members about its investigation into the conduct of Deputy Andrew Lewis and the correct course of action would be to write to the Committee, c/o the Committee Clerk, Morier House, St Helier, JE1 1DD to request that the material be published. They can also be contacted at the following email address:

StatesGreffe@gov.je

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.