Chief Minister John Le Fondré and senior civil servants were yesterday questioned by backbench politicians on the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel.
Constable Karen Shenton-Stone asked Senator Le Fondré whether there had been improvements in emergency decision-making as a result of lessons learned from the opening months of the pandemic.
Senator Le Fondré said there was likely to be a review, but that it was not appropriate to conduct it at present.
‘I’m not looking back in hindsight. I want to look forward,’ he said. ‘Our focus is on getting strategy for the next steps in place, although we will apply the experiences we have had.’
When questioned by the JEP during a recent interview about whether he would change any aspect of the government’s Covid response, he replied ‘at this stage, no’.
Alex Khaldi, interim director for public health policy, said that learning during a pandemic was ‘absolutely vital’.
‘An awful lot has been learned – this has been apparent in our track-and-trace work, the policy in schools that has meant we have maintained safety while having fewer people in isolation, and in the swift response to the recent outbreak in the retail sector,’ he said.
Members of the panel also sought to examine some of the decisions made during the latter months of 2020 and the role of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Cell, which
advises the government, in relation to border controls.
STAC meeting minutes published recently have revealed concerns among scientific experts about the raising of the case-number threshold for places to qualify as ‘green’ travel areas in October.
STAC chairman Patrick Armstrong said: ‘STAC’s view was that the border was a very important part of protecting the Island and that raising the threshold would increase the risk – there were a number of robust discussions.’
Mr Armstrong said that the increased risk was from ‘a purely viral point of view’ and added that there were other considerations relating to the social, mental-health and economic impacts of Jersey’s travel connections.
Senator Le Fondré defended the fact that minutes from meetings of the ‘competent authority’ decision-making group of ministers, and the wider Council of Ministers, are not published.
‘This was something I asked about when I was involved in Scrutiny, and was told the meetings should be a “safe space” where ministers could freely express their views without fear or favour,’ he said. ‘I accepted that and I think it’s the right thing.’
The Chief Minister was also asked about whether a meeting had taken place with members of STAC during the last week of October in relation to concerns – mentioned in STAC minutes – about changes to guidelines on social distancing and gatherings.
Senator Le Fondré said there had been ‘potential distractions’ during the week in question. He explained that those ‘political matters’ related to the vote of no confidence brought against him, but he did not go into more detail.
