Justice and Home Affairs boss resigns

Friday 02 July 2021

The top civil servant at Justice and Home Affairs has resigned.

Former police officer Julian Blazeby became Director-General of the department in July 2018, moving from the States of Jersey Police, where he had been Deputy Chief Officer, and acting Chief Officer.

A Government spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Julian Blazeby, Director General for Justice and Home Affairs, will be leaving his role in the autumn following his recent resignation.”

Mr Blazeby came to the Island as Acting Deputy Chief Police Officer in July 2017 and was confirmed in that role the following April. Before that, he had served as Director of Major Investigations for the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Prior to that, he had worked for the Ministry of Defence, Staffordshire Police, where he was Assistant Chief Constable, and Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies. 

He stepped up to act as Jersey’s Police Chief when the late Chief Officer Rob Bastable was unable to work through illness in 2018.

The senior official at JHA has responsibility for six services: States of Jersey Police, the Fire and Rescue Service, the Ambulance Service, Customs and Immigration, the Prison Service, and the Health & Safety Inspectorate.

Last year, Mr Blazeby also had a central role in establishing the contact tracing app, contact tracing team and vaccination response.

His tenure at the department was not without controversy: in 2019, he was the subject of a complaint, which led to an external investigation.

The complaint was not upheld; however, it became a political matter when the Home Affairs Minister, the late Len Norman, told the States Assembly that he had made several requests to see the report but this had been denied by the former Chief Executive, Charlie Parker.

This prompted a former Assistant Home Affairs Minister and current member of the States Employment Board, Constable Deidre Mezbourian to ask: “Who runs the island?”

Mr Blazeby also clashed with former Prison Governor Nick Cameron in the months before Mr Cameron resigned from the post for personal reasons.

Emails sent to Mr Blazeby from Mr Cameron last year, before the latter stepped aside from his role while an HR process took place, revealed the Governor’s growing unease at the level of support provided to the prison throughout the pandemic. 

More recently, Mr Blazeby appeared before Scrutiny to make the case that a new Joint Fire and Ambulance Station – to be named after Mr Norman – should be built where the Fire Service is currently based at Rouge Bouillon.