POLITICIANS have voted to expand the hours in which the States Assembly will sit as part of a bid to clear a large workload scheduled for the final session before the forthcoming election.
Members voted unanimously in favour of a “branchage-style” proposition to prune half an hour from their usual 90-minute lunch adjournment as a temporary measure for the sitting that will start on Tuesday 24 March.
As well as facing the truncated lunch break between 1pm and 2pm, politicians also approved another suggestion from Deputy Steve Ahier, chair of the Privileges and Procedures Committee, that the standard finish time for the forthcoming meeting be moved back from 5.30pm to 6pm.
Deputy Ahier said there was a considerable volume of business on the agenda for the meeting, which must conclude by Thursday 2 April, the day before Good Friday, with the Assembly then breaking for Easter and not scheduled to convene again until after the election on 7 June.
“It is my hope that by adding an extra hour per day, we can save the equivalent of a full day,” he said.
The order paper for the most recent sitting, held last week, listed 30 propositions timetabled for the final meeting, including a new Dogs Law and Animal Welfare Law, proposals to ban illegal taxi services, propositions around affordable housing, buy-to-let mortgages and imposing a duty on governments to look after future generations.
Two further propositions – Deputy Montfort Tadier’s move to oblige businesses to accept cash payments and Deputy Philip Bailhache’s call to revoke trans guidance in schools – were also added to the agenda after being postponed by a fortnight.
The next sitting is due to start at 9.30am on Tuesday 24 March.
