Deputy Yvonne Burford has been elected to the Policy and Resources Committee, defeating Deputy John Gollop in a two-way contest.
The Father of the House was nominated by Deputies Neil Inder and David Dorrity in opposition to P&R’s preferred candidate, Deputy Burford, in a quickly resolved election on Thursday afternoon.
The pair both gave speeches – with Deputy Steve Falla reading Deputy Burford’s speech out for her as the latter was absent from the States meeting through illness.
Prior to the election, the States has agreed to suspend the rules of procedure so that the election could be held in Deputy Burford’s absence.
She was nominated by the P&R President, Deputy de Sausmarez, and Vice-President, Deputy Gavin St Pier, and they wanted the debate to go ahead.
Deputy de Sausmarez said she wanted Deputy Burford to join her P&R Committee because of her experience and insight.
Deputy Steve Falla delivered an amended version of Deputy Burford’s speech in her absence.
“She’s comfortable both in leadership positions and as a team player and in the Policy and Resources Committee members are required to be both,” he said. “Since first entering the states, she has immersed herself in active and visible participation in policy development, cross departmental collaboration, and meaningful engagement with islanders.”
In his speech, Deputy Gollop – the island’s most experienced politician – said the island needs P&R to focus on local matters. He argued that his experience fitted that remit.
“It covers a huge range,” he said about P&R’s current workload.
“One issue I think I found as a problem in a previous committee was there was too much emphasis on external affairs, and that robbed the island. I think that’s changing, but it robbed us of all the work we needed to do here. I’m heartened to hear there will be more emphasis on social environmental policy, because that’s an area I’d like to get into and develop more.
“I think we need to have more successful long term employment relations, which might mean, on the one hand, negotiating tougher contractual arrangements, and on the other hand, looking at health insurance for public sector workers, for example.
“I think the education debate today showed strongly that we actually need to to devolve and delegate some functions of Policy and Resources to other parts of the public sector, although there’s efficiencies in centralisation that also can lead to bureaucracy, and I would like to see more members, not necessarily those on Policy and Resources involved with political oversight committees in many of these areas. Indeed, my personal view is Policy and Resources would be better if it had seven members rather than five, because the workload on Policy and Resources is enormous.”
Ultimately Deputy Gollop secured 14 votes with Deputy Burford receiving 20.
There was one spoilt and one blank paper, resulting in Deputy Burford’s election being confirmed.