More than £100k spent on policy consultancy...but where are the laws?

Wednesday 25 October 2023

Two out of three new laws that a London-based crime and justice consultancy was paid over £100,000 by the previous Government to expedite have now been shelved, it has emerged.

Crest Advisory (UK) Ltd – described online as "real-world experts in justice, policing and public safety" – was commissioned by former Chief Minister John Le Fondré's administration to expedite three projects which had been delayed due to policy officers being deployed onto work related to the pandemic.

These were: the Public Services Ombudsman project, the Statutory Redress project and the Public Inquiries Law project.

However, following questions from Express, it has now been revealed that the latter two of those projects seem to have been quietly shelved, with neither appearing in the Government's legislative programme for 2024.

Shelved project #1: what happened to the Public Inquiries Law?

The Public Inquiries Law would have set out how major public reviews of island issues should be conducted, funded and recorded. A public inquiry is an investigation which is able to compel testimony and evidence, finding out the details of an occurrence or situation in the public interest, what can be learnt, who was responsible and how to prevent it happening again.

Jersey's last major public inquiry was the £23m Independent Jersey Care Inquiry, which, while praised for uncovering abuse against children in island institutions spanning decades, also faced criticism for its spiralling costs, particularly the spend on lawyers' fees.

However, there is no law governing how public inquiries are conducted in the island which raised concern when there were calls for a public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic, including from a Jersey-based Brigadier with experience of dealing with crises. 

Pictured: The previous Government "prioritised development of the potential law post-covid due to concerns about potential demands for an associated public inquiry".

Responding to a written question this week, The Chief Minister explained that the "previous administration prioritised development of the potential law post-covid due to concerns about potential demands for an associated public inquiry".

However, a public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic underpinned by a new law never happened – the Government instead launched a £500,000 independent review instead.

A consultation on the proposed new law was opened in 2021, running until mid-December of that year. However, the results of that consultation have never been made public by Government, and no updates on the progress of work following the consultation were published.

Shelved project #2: 'Harm' compensation scheme

The aim of the proposed Statutory Redress project was to establish a legal basis for a scheme to provide financial and non-financial compensation for individuals who suffered significant harm from specific types of abuse in specific contexts.

The aim was to differentiate this from time limited compensation schemes in response to key events – for example, the Historic Abuse Redress Schemes.

The project that is going ahead...

Work to create a Public Sector Ombudsperson – a new way to help deal with public complaints – is moving, however.

The Chief Minister said that the work carried out by Crest "formed the basis of law drafting instructions" that she had published in October 2022, and that a draft law is due to be put before States Members "before the end of 2023".

At present, the public can only complain to a States Complaints Board which is made up of volunteers who are supported administratively by the States Greffe.

However, concerns have been raised about the seriousness with which some Ministers and their departments have taken this process and whether the board has enough 'teeth', underpinning the push for an ombudsperson, which also appeared in Kristina Moore's Chief Ministerial 'vision' plan.

Deputy Moore provided an update on the three projects following a written question from Reform Jersey's Deputy Raluca Kovacs. In her response, she confirmed that Crest Advisory was paid between £100,000 and £125,00 to carry out these projects and said their work "has been completed".

Other policy development payments

As well as being paid between £100,000 and £125,000 for the three law drafting projects, a report on the Government's use of consultants between July 2021 and June 2022 revealed that Crest Advisory was also commissioned by the previous Government to undertake further work on the Redress Scheme for between £35,000 and £50,000.

The advisory company also helped with policy development and law drafting work on Youth Justice for a cost of between £50,000 and £75,000, and looked at the potential role of the Civil Service of Jersey in future coalition, negotiations and agreements at a cost of between £20,000 and £35,000.