"Politicians must be properly involved in key strategic decisions"

Tuesday 18 August 2020

The Environment Minister is demanding answers after meeting minutes suggested the team advising government on its covid strategy bypassed politicians in deciding to cut ties with Guernsey.

In an email sent to the Council of Ministers and other senior government officials, which has been seen by Express, Deputy John Young blasts the decision as “short sighted in the extreme” as he questions why Ministers were not consulted.

The decision emerged in the minutes of a Scientific and Technical Advisory Cell (STAC) meeting on 28 April, which were only published last week.

The minutes show that, as Terms of Reference for STAC were agreed, the group “agreed that the advice from Guernsey public health specifically was not needed” - in contrast to previous strategies drawn up for handling pandemic influenza, which had advocated an inter-island approach.

An “action” to remove Dr Nicola Brink, who is leading Guernsey’s covid response, from the group’s Terms of Reference was therefore taken.

Pictured: The membership of STAC, which includes several senior civil servants as well as medics.

Learning of the move yesterday, a “surprised” Deputy John Young wrote to Deputy Kevin Pamplin – who successfully pushed to make the minutes public – to push for the matter to be “investigated in depth”.

Copied to the Council of Ministers, as well as CEO Charlie Parker and Health Director General Caroline Landon, Deputy Young continues: “As a Minister , I was not aware of this decision, not being part of the Competent Authority . Had I been informed I would have required this decision to be discussed and decided at a Political level , because it must have closed the door at an early stage to the prospect of a Channel Island Strategy and close cooperation. It seems to me an example of myopic thinking and short sighted in the extreme – before we had even started to deal with the pandemic proper – to close the door to a wider scientific knowledge with experience of virus management and their input based on a common and largely unknown  external health threat.

"Kevin , I ask you to investigate this decision and the manner of its making , because there must be lessons learned here and point to changes in the way we do things . Politicians must be properly involved in key strategic decisions."

He also reflects on whether the decision not to work together ultimately disadvantaged the islands.

"We will never know now whether there would have been benefits from a joint CI strategy . In Guernsey I am have heard a common expressed opinion that an opportunity may have been missed for a joint Channel islands Bubble at an early stage and cooperation with a borders strategy . People ask whether it would have helped tourism economically had a combined internal economy been adopted . It is too late and clearly a wider consequence of this early decision."

The Minister concluded: "I also wonder who was involved in making this decision , was there any evidence of personality factors at play , or was there a rational decision."

Contacted for comment by Express, Deputy Young confirmed he was seeking answers from the CEO, and said that he did not want to say any more on the matter before receiving more information.

Responding to the backlash over the decision not to include Guernsey officials in STAC's membership, its Vice-Chair, Medical Officer for Health Dr Susan Turnbull, commented: “The Scientific and Technical Advisory Cell (STAC) has always sought the widest views to inform our advice to government on its response to protect the people of Jersey from the threat of COVID-19, as we follow our strategy of ‘least overall harm.’ This was reflected in the official Terms of Reference for STAC. 

“Throughout the outbreak of COVID-19, my colleague Dr Muscat, in his capacity as Deputy Medical Officer of Health, has, and continues to, work closely with Dr Brink. It is mistaken to report that STAC has sought to limit the advice we take into consideration. Furthermore, such assertions could undermine the strength of our relationship with our excellent colleagues in Guernsey.

“Each island has, entirely appropriately, tailored its advice and response to individual island circumstances, while keeping good lines of inter-island communication open, as well as through the national and other public health networks in which we each engage.”

Pictured: Dr Susan Turnbull - pictured here during a press conference - said that the lines of inter-island communication remained open.

The islands decided to go their separate ways early on during the pandemic, leading to concerns that the their historic ties were wearing thin.

The contrasting approaches, which saw Jersey decide how to "live with" covid rather than aim to eliminate it entirely like Guernsey, led to criticism from one Guernsey politician, who said: “…We are in the international division, we are in the World Cup for the way we have dealt with this dispute so far...

"Compare it with our neighbours 20 miles away, where people In have been speaking to on legal matters and other matters that I’m involved in call them a bunch of bumbling idiots compared with us.

“They compare our Chief Minister with theirs, and ours wins quite favourably. They compare our Health President with theirs, and she compares admirably.”

More recently, those distinct strategies led Guernsey's Chief Minister to dismiss the idea of an inter-island 'air bridge'.

Deputy Gavin St. Pier said: "We're not even considering opening to Jersey at this stage... They have adopted a different strategy on this and I'm not critical on that - I think every jurisdiction has to make their own judgements on what they believe is right for their community."