Chief Minister Ian Gorst said that the report – which the JEP has learned cost £60,000 plus expenses – highlighted problems with the machinery of government and that he would propose a raft of changes later this year.
The planned reforms include scrapping collective responsibility – where all ministers and at least two assistant ministers are required to vote the same way on government decisions – and the Troy Rule which limits the number of Members who can sit on the Council of Ministers.
However, Reform Jersey, the Island’s only political party, has accused the Chief Minister of using the report, which was published earlier this week, as an excuse for a ‘cynical power grab’. Deputy Sam Mézec, chairman of the party, added that Senator Gorst had been developing his plan for changes to ministerial government for months and that officers from the Chief Minister’s Department had presented proposed changes to the Privileges and Procedures Committee in March.
The report, written by Jessica Simor QC, could also potentially pave the way for a return to frontline politics for Senator Philip Ozouf, who resigned from his ministerial responsibilities in the wake of a damning report by the Island’s Comptroller and Auditor General earlier this year. The C&AG report found that the Innovation Fund had given out more than £2 million in loans to start-up firms – £1.4m of which is never likely to be recovered.
Senator Gorst said that the Simor report showed that Senator Ozouf ‘wasn’t to blame for what happened’ and that he would ‘consult with ministerial colleagues about where Senator Ozouf might be able to come back into government’.
