THE Health Minister instructed officials to prepare the £710 million new-hospital contract for his signature before all internal checks and approvals had been completed, newly released correspondence has revealed.
In a letter dated 3 June, then-Deputy Tom Binet said he intended to sign the deal for the acute hospital at Overdale “in advance of any further internal confirmations, approvals and reviews” – and accepted personal responsibility and accountability for that decision.
He acknowledged that the Treasury Minister, Treasurer and government’s Principal Accountable Officer wanted additional work carried out to assure themselves that the proposed contract represented an economical use of public money.
However, the minister said the project had already undergone “significant levels of assurance” and argued that the dangers of further delay outweighed the potential benefits of completing the outstanding work first.
Deputy Binet wrote: “The benefits that may be obtained from further work prior to contracting and consequent delay are considerably outweighed by the potential for costs to increase further if I do not sign the contract imminently.”
The minister also recognised that entering into the contract before internal sign-offs or exemptions had been secured – including approval from the Commercial Services Approval Board – could result in the States’ 2026 accounts being qualified by external auditors.
His instruction meant that Health Department chief officer Tom Walker, as the project’s accountable officer, and his staff would bear no personal responsibility for the consequences of the decision.
However, in a response dated 19 June, Mr Walker said the minister’s intervention had been “necessary at the time to expedite the contracting process” but that all required assurance work had since been completed.
He said this included satisfying the Treasury Minister’s requirements and securing the outstanding commercial approvals, enabling him to fulfil his own responsibilities under the Public Finances Law. Further internal audit work was due to follow.
The correspondence sheds new light on the last-minute difficulties revealed by the JEP, after Bouygues UK was confirmed as the main works delivery partner for the acute hospital in June.
The contract was signed on 5 June, two days before the election, allowing Deputy Binet to fulfil his pledge to complete the deal during the previous political term. The hospital is due to open in 2028.
Following his re-election as Health Minister, now-Senator Binet told the JEP that the process had become “extraordinarily complicated” during its final days and had succeeded “by the narrowest of margins”.
He called for a lessons-learned review, warning that the hurdles could easily have further extended Jersey’s 12-to-14-year struggle to deliver a new hospital.
Senator Binet denied that the 11th-hour signing had been engineered to win votes, saying Bouygues needed certainty before the election and the potentially unsettled period which followed.
