Former Environment Minister ticked off for too much printing

Thursday 11 May 2017

It's emerged Jersey's former Environment Minister was given a formal dressing down from the Chief Minister for printing “significant quantities” of potentially confidential material just days after he had been ousted from the States.

Ex-St Saviour Deputy Rob Duhamel – once the States’ ‘father of the house’ – lost out in the October 2014 election after 21 years of public service.

Two weeks after that election, however, Chief Minister Ian Gorst officially reprimanded the outgoing Minister in an email - part of a batch obtained by Express under the Freedom of Information Law - after it was revealed that he may have printed large amounts of material related to his Planning and Environment duties.

“I would like to remind you that as an outgoing States Member you may only copy personal material and any material you might have stored in relation to your constituency work during your term of office that is not Planning related,” Senator Gorst wrote.

He added: “Any material you might have in your possession as a non-States Member after Monday, 3rd November, 2014 may not be divulged to any third party and may not be used at any future date in connection with an applicant's Planning application or on any environmental related matter… I am sorry that this letter comes very late in the day, but you must be aware of your responsibilities as an outgoing States Member and certainly of your position with regard to information you may have in your possession that would be classed as privileged and not available to any member of the public under normal circumstances.”

The warning came at the conclusion of a fraught term in the Council of Ministers, which saw Deputy Duhamel officially asked to resign in a letter from Senator Gorst over a year earlier. He declined, leading to a proposition unanimously backed by the other ministers, criticising him for, “…fall[ing] below the standards of honesty and integrity expected of a Minister”. They accused him of having withheld crucial information relating to various ongoing planning applications at the time.

Following negotiations between Senator Gorst and Deputy Duhamel, the proposition was withdrawn a day in advance of the States debate in January 2014.

Clashes with Senator Sir Philip Bailhache over how best to deal with the former Pontins site at Plemont followed.

Another email sent by Senator Ozouf to States Treasurer Richard Bell, Department for Infrastructure Chief Officer John Rogers, and Infrastructure Minister Eddie Noel regarding a ‘deal’ – the content of which is redacted from the message – betrays some animosity from ministers towards Deputy Duhamel. Apparently in a ‘Catch 22’, Senator Ozouf wrote on 28 October 2014: “Either way the [REDACTED] deal with be out into the public domain. If it is cheap then we will be told we were wrong and Rob Duhamel was right all along. If we were to accept a deal that would loose [sic] money we will be criticised.”

Mr Duhamel declined to comment on the emails when contacted by Express.