Deputy gets rap on knuckles for complaint confidentiality breach

Thursday 06 January 2022

A Town Deputy has had a rap on the knuckles for emailing an official complaint to the wrong person, and also raising the subject in a public meeting, when the civil servant he was complaining about was in the same room.

Deputy Mike Higgins was referred to Commissioner for Standards, Paul Kernaghan, who is responsible for investigating complaints about States Members' behaviour.

Following an investigation, he found that the St Helier 3/4 representative had breached two articles of the Code of Conduct for elected representatives.

Deputy Higgins has since apologised for sending confidential information to the wrong person. He has also been formally requested to write a personal letter of apology to the civil servant he had complained about.

The source of the complaint against the Deputy was a meeting of the First Tower Community Association in September, at which the politician announced that he had submitted a complaint to the Chief Minister against Principal Youth Officer Mark Capern over bids for funding.

Deputy Higgins had not told Mr Capern, who was at the meeting, that he intended to publicly raise the issue there.

In emailing his complaint to the Chief Minister, Deputy Higgins also cc’ed a number of people, including Interim Government Chief Executive Paul Martin. However, he sent it to the wrong email address, which belonged to another Paul Martin in the organisation.

Pictured: Commissioner for Standards Paul Kernaghan CBE

Mr Capern formally complained to Commissioner for Standards Paul Kernaghan about these two actions.

Concerning the email address error, the Commissioner did not suggest further action, something that the Policy and Procedures Committee – a group of politicians who holds the power to sanction other States Members – agreed with.

However, it added: “The Committee believes this is a timely opportunity to remind Members to be vigilant when emailing any recipient and to ensure only those who have a legitimate reason to receive correspondence do so.”

On the issue of the public reference to the complaint, PPC said: “We accept the Commissioner’s finding that Deputy Higgins breached Article 6 of the Code which is explicit that a complaint against a States’ employee is a confidential matter. 

“Any planned public disclosure of the matter should be advised in advance to the parties concerned. 

“The Committee notes the explanation provided by Deputy Higgins that he only used job titles during the meeting, however, by doing so, he was still in breach of the Code. 

“The Committee concurs with the Commissioner’s suggestion that Deputy Higgins should write a personal letter of apology to Mr Capern and has formally requested the Deputy to do so. 

“Aside from the letter of apology, the Committee does not recommend any further action is necessary in relation to this matter.”