Request
I would like to know on what date the release of Committee minutes was legally applied to Freedom of Information responses.
For clarification: The date of the decision of the Privileges and Procedures Committee to apply a policy in relation to the release of the minutes of Committees set up under Standing Order 39 of the Standing Orders of the States of Jersey 1966.
Response
Parliamentary Privilege is a form of immunity which is necessary for a parliament to function independently, without external interference. Article 28 of the States of Jersey Law 1966 gave the States Assembly the power to make standing orders for the regulation of their proceedings and business. Committees that were appointed under Standing Order 39 of the Standing Orders of the States of Jersey 1966 are therefore subject to States Assembly privilege.
In the past some of these Committee minutes have been released on a discretionary basis as no formal policy existed as to the release of such minutes, and each request was considered on a case-by-case basis. The Privileges and Procedures Committee (PPC) have now considered this issue in detail and have decided to apply a consistent policy to the release of such minutes.
PPC have therefore decided that while all minutes of Committees that were appointed under Standing Order 39 of the Standing Orders of the States of Jersey 1966 are subject to parliamentary privilege, those minutes that are older than 25 years will be considered on a case-by-case basis and may be released upon request due to the elapsed time period: the presumption is that such minutes will normally be released. Committee minutes that are less than 25 years old will not be released as this would be considered an infringement of the privileges of the States Assembly, particularly the Assembly’s right to decide its own internal procedures, including deciding on what information to put in the public domain and the timing and manner of such publication, without interference from any outside authority.
The decision of PPC to apply this policy was made on the 9 November 2017 and formally agreed on the 5 December 2017.
This response has been issued on behalf of the States Greffe. The States Greffe is responsible for the information held by (and on behalf of) both itself and the States Assembly. Neither the States Assembly nor the States Greffe form part of the Government of Jersey and the Government was not involved either in the examination and retrieval of any information required for this response, nor in the drafting of the response itself.
