Which States Member asked the most questions last year?

Which States Member asked the most questions last year?

Figures compiled by independent analysts over.flow.je showed that the pair hit the ground running following the May 2018 general election, challenging veteran Deputies Geoff Southern and Mike Higgins for the most written and oral questions submitted.

During the period following the election and before the 2019 summer recess, Deputy Ward was the third-most active Member in terms of questioning, having asked 21 oral questions and tabled 54 written questions, while Deputy Pamplin was fourth with 22 oral and 38 written submissions.

The long-serving duo of Deputies Southern and Higgins were the first and second most inquisitive Members.

Other new Members who contributed towards States questions included Deputies Carina Alves (46 total), Kirsten Morel (27), Mary Le Hegarat (19), Steve Ahier (17), Jess Perchard (15), Rowland Huelin (13) and Trevor Pointon (12).

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Relatively few individual propositions were lodged during the first year of the Assembly.

Deputy Jeremy Maçon was the most active in this regard tabling 11 altogether, nine of which were eventually debated with the other two withdrawn.

His contributions included proposals that were passed to make it mandatory for cat owners to be notified if their pets are involved in a road traffic accident and for greater promotion of Jèrriais in the public sector, including through the inclusion of the Island’s native tongue on official signage and departmental letter-heads.

His proposition calling for plans to merge Liberation Square and the Weighbridge to be scrapped was withdrawn after the government itself announced it would be dropping the £3 million scheme.

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Deputies Russell Labey and Rob Ward lodged the next highest number of individual propositions, submitting five and three respectively.

As well as asking questions and submitting propositions, States Members also contribute to the political process by joining ministerial departments or committees and Scrutiny Panels to hold the government to account.

Details can be found of what panels Members sit on can be found at theyworkforyou.je, which also includes details of their attendance records for States votes.

Since the general election and up until the end of last year the best attendee was Deputy Steve Ahier, who missed only a single vote, giving him an almost perfect 99.7% attendance record.

The worst attendee was External Relations Minister Ian Gorst, who was present for just 54.6% of votes, although this was largely due to his frequent attendance of out-of-the-Island events on behalf of his department.

The average attendance record for States Members was 87.4% during the period.

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