Members are due to debate the dual role of the Bailiff – who acts as both the Island’s chief judge and President of the States – after Deputy Montfort Tadier lodged a proposition calling for the Assembly to instead be presided over by an elected speaker.
Both the Clothier Report, spearheaded by UK parliamentary commissioner Sir Cecil Clothier in 2000, and the Carswell Review, led by Lord Carswell in 2010, recommended that the Bailiff should be removed from the Chamber.
And there have been renewed calls to end the dual role after the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry recommended that consideration be given to the findings of the Clothier and Carswell reviews.
If Deputy Tadier’s proposition is approved, the Privileges and Procedures Committee, which oversees constitutional matters, would be required to bring forward the necessary law changes in time for the 2018 election.
In a response to Deputy Tadier’s proposition, the PPC has published a letter sent from the Bailiff, Sir William Bailhache, to Chief Minister Ian Gorst and copied to the Council of Ministers and the committee chairman Constable Len Norman.
In it, Sir William outlines the main reasons why he believes the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry was wrong to recommend removing the Bailiff from the States.
These include that constitutional matters were ‘outside the inquiry’s terms of reference’ and that witnesses who gave evidence to the panel including himself, the Deputy Bailiff and two former Bailiffs were not asked about the issue, as the inquiry ‘did not invite evidence or submissions on the subject’. He added that there was ‘no suggestion in the report that the dual role of the Bailiff contributed in any way to the extent of the abuse or the failure to uncover it or deal with’.
‘The link between any so-called brushing under the carpet and the judiciary is not just unproven but it is intrinsically illogical. Once issues get to the judiciary, they have by definition not been brushed under the carpet because the court sits in public.
‘If perceptions are not capable of being linked rationally to reality, they should not form the basis of decision-taking. To hold otherwise is to take decisions in a fantasy world and not the real world.’
The Bailiff accepts that the decision is one for States Members and that he, nor the Deputy Bailiff, will preside over the debate.
Sir William concluded by saying that he was ‘sorry’ that Senator Gorst, who has publicly said he supports the separation of powers, has never met the Bailiff to discuss the matter.
The States debated a similar proposition from Deputy Tadier in November last year, which was rejected by 31 votes to 13. Many of those voting against the proposals argued that it lacked detail on how the role of an elected speaker would work in practice.
The proposition is due to be debated on Tuesday 12 September.
