States Members annual leave procedure (FOI)

​Request

From 1 January 2018 until June 2018, please kindly provide the number of days of annual leave / holiday requested by each Minister, and the dates of each. Please also kindly provide whether each request was approved / denied, and the nature of the leave (family holiday for example).

If this is not possible for data protection reasons or it exceeds the Freedom of Information (FOI) time / cost threshold, please simply provide for each Minister the total number of days of approved annual leave and the dates within this time period.

Please also kindly provide details of any policies that govern the amount of days of annual leave / holiday that Ministers / States Members can take each year, and the position of the person / body that approves or denies the request.

Response

Ministers (and other Members of the States Assembly) are not employees of the States Employment Board and so do not have conditions of employment in the same manner.

They may wish to provide any details of leave or absence, however, that would be a personal matter for the individual involved. This can be requested of the individuals outside the remit of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

All States Members are required to attend sittings of the States Assembly and unless there is a valid reason for their absence (for example they are on other government or States business or they are ill) they are marked ‘en defaut’ (absent). Members are not, however, required to book or request their leave and there is no process for approving or denying that leave. Members are, essentially, self-employed.

Ministers have arrangements to ensure that there is adequate cover for their ministerial duties over and above their constituency work. For instance the Chief Minister will arrange for other Ministers to deputise for him during any absence from the Island whether he is on leave or on official business.