Inside the States

Deputy Anne Pryke won the contest against four others, including the former minister. Deputy Le Claire, Deputy Geoff Southern, Deputy Colin Egre and Senator Perchard also put their names forward and having so many candidates did lead to an interesting, if long, voting process.

States members heard a statement from a candidate who then had 20 minutes to answer questions. A common theme was preventing poor health - and there were some ideas on that theme. Deputy Pryke suggesting giving everyone over 55 a free check-up at the doctor, as a way of detecting any problems early.

Senator Perchard suggested building a new hospital with more private rooms, and protecting the system from health tourists. There was quite a lot of input on the Williamson report, with most candidates wanting to implement his 13 recommendations in full.

Senator Jim Perchard

Deputy Pryke focused on her 30 years of front-line nursing experience, and said she'd work hard to bring the long-awaited policy document New Directions forward. Deputy Southern said he would take Senator Stuart Syvret to court to make him prove his allegations against Health employees, since it had put them under so much pressure.

There was a lot of speculation over whether Senator Perchard would run again or not. He started his speech by apologising again for his comments to Senator Syvret in the States. But he said he felt he still had work to do and passion for the department. He said he'd changed as a person because of the quality of people he'd met in Health and Social Services. And he said if he was given a chance, next time he would challenge the Council of Ministers more on the issue of getting funding for Health.

But he wasn't given that chance. In the first ballot Deputy Pryke had 24, Deputy Southern 12, Deputy Perchard 11, Deputy Egre 5 and just one for Deputy Le Claire, which means he was the only person who voted for him. So Deputies Le Claire and Egre dropped out of the race, and a second ballot was held, with Deputy Pryke taking 27 votes, Deputy Southern 16, and Senator Perchard went down to 10.

Regular Questions

The Chief Minister said he was going to look into expanding the number of apprenticeships available at the States as part of the economic stimulus plan. Right now there are only three, in the Transport and Technical Services Department.

Geoff Southern

In addition, the Attorney General said the police did not have a search warrant to search the home of Senator Syvret after his arrest earlier this month, but William Bailhache said that was perfectly legal in those circumstances.

There were a number of questions for the Economic Development Minster over six hundred thousand pounds of public money that was used to help investors who had lost money because of some bad advice. That was made in a ministerial decision earlier, rather than coming to the States the way payments for woollies workers had to.

The Chief Minister – who announced that public workers would be getting a pay freeze – said that he'd recommend States members don't get a rise either. That met with a lot of complaints - Deputy Southern suggested that taking seven and a half million pounds out of the economy would have negative effects, but Senator Le Sueur said essentially it would be money that wouldn't add to a deficit.

And Senator Le Sueur also made a statement about a proposition to be debated later by Senator Syvret - that the States should not attach any confidentiality clauses to settlements in historic child abuse cases.

Senator Le Sueur said essentially they agreed with the proposition, but that it should be changed to give them the power to make the amount of a court settlement secret. But Senator Syvret didn't accept that - he called it a wrecking proposition.

The Attorney General said he would not be recommending they hold another election in St Helier number two. He said under the regulations even if they were to take one vote away for every violation of the elections law, it still wouldn't be enough to change the results of the vote. Deputies Shona Pitman and Geoff Southern would still have won their seats.

Public business

Public business began at about five o'clock, on Deputy Bob Hill's proposition to extend regulations on dealing with complaints against police to honorary officers in parish hall enquiries.

The States will be continuing with that today, plus some more of the long list of propositions - on the issues of suspending States Officers, French fishermen fishing for Bream, abolishing the time limit for States questions, and finally Deputy Southern's proposition about Senator Syvret's arrest, which has been added to the order paper. So it should continue to be a full and busy week in the States.