Deputy Gregory Guida was elected by the States yesterday, filling a post left vacant by the death of long-serving Member Constable Len Norman. The new minister paid tribute to his predecessor in a speech to the Assembly following his election, saying he was ‘trying to fill some very large shoes’.
The St Lawrence Deputy, who had been Mr Norman’s assistant minister, said: ‘I would have done anything not to find myself in this situation today. I hoped and prayed that somehow my mentor and friend Len Norman would overcome his very serious condition. Len loved this position and he was uniquely suited to it.’
Deputy Guida, who was elected unopposed, said he had been working very closely with Mr Norman on the modernisation of services and outlined several capital projects he wanted to advance, including a ‘first class’ police shooting range, a new sexual assault referral centre and what he christened the ‘Len Norman Joint Fire and Ambulance Station’.
He added that there were new challenges, including the Ambulance Service adapting to the new Jersey Care Model, an improved Financial Crimes Unit for States police and fire services complying with ‘very complex regulations’ in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, in which 72 people lost their lives.
All of this was also happening ‘in the shadow of the consequences of Covid’, he said.
Responding to a question from Senator Tracey Vallois, Deputy Guida said he hoped to introduce a domestic abuse bill to the States ‘by the end of the year’.
Senator Kristina Moore asked whether he ‘intended to continue the work of the previous minister in pursuing the decriminalisation of drugs’. At a Scrutiny hearing in April, Mr Norman said decriminalisation of drugs would be considered as part of a harm-reduction strategy.
Deputy Guida said: ‘We had a meeting with officers and the Health Minister [Richard Renouf], and the idea was to discuss the notion of decriminalising drugs in Jersey. We were completely astonished to find that nobody at the table was actually fundamentally against it. We found out that we had all sorts of technical issues which needed to be sorted, but none of us was fundamentally against it.’
He added that work would continue in this area and that it was something he ‘looked forward’ to discussing.
