Alderney could reduce the size of its government by a fifth – with potential implications for the size of Guernsey’s States too.
Alderney’s Policy and Finance Committee has started work to reform its States with a number of proposals being submitted to Guernsey’s Law Officers for consideration.
These include reducing the number of States Members in Alderney from ten to eight.
As two Alderney Representatives currently serve in the States of Deliberation in Guernsey, the public in Alderney will be asked what they think about how those representatives are elected.
Alderney’s election cycles could be changed too – with eight candidates elected every four years in the future, rather than five seats being up for election every two years as it is currently.
P&F wants to keep Alderney’s existing Committee system though, rather than start changing that by moving to a different model of Government.
This means the previously proposed different models of government, including an executive model that would delegate portfolios to an Executive Council, has been dismissed at this stage.
“Many of these issues featured in Members’ election manifestos and have been debated for a long period of time,” said Jeannie Cameron, Chair of Policy & Finance and the Political Lead for Government Reform in Alderney.
“Governance reform in Alderney is not new, and significant work and several rounds of discussion have taken place to reach the point we arrived at this week,” she added.
“What has been agreed now is a clear, structured way forward for reform including testing public opinion on the plebiscite, obtaining legal advice on proposals to reduce Membership of the States – which will streamline decision making and improve efficiencies, and determining when the proposals will be delivered.”
As part of the proposed changes, Alderney could swap to having eight rather than 10 States members as soon as this year, by electing just three candidates in November rather than five.
If they then served a two year term of office, they would face re-election in 2028 alongside any candidates for the five other vacant seats in the States.
From 2028 onwards all eight seats in the States of Alderney could be filled every four years.
It’s proposed that this would reduce election costs and increase continuity
As part of those proposed changes, P&F will be starting a public consultation on the Alderney plebiscite “in the near future”.
This data will be used to decide whether the mechanism for choosing the Alderney Representatives in the States of Guernsey continues or is scrapped.
It is currently effectively held every two years on a ‘trial basis’ having first been introduced in 2006, but not yet officially legally implemented.
Alex Snowdon was elected to the States of Alderney in November 2016, and has been one of the island’s representatives in the States of Guernsey since 2020.
He told Express that the overall reform proposals for the States of Alderney are “an interesting proposal” but he thinks it could set the island up for some problems in the future if they rush into the changes.
“I think we’ve actually forgotten to look at the way we do governance,” he said.
“Are we sticking with the committee system? Are we restructuring the committees? The proposals feels a bit half baked at the moment, and to be honest, I’m not quite sure that these proposals should have really been checked with the Law Officers and the Privy Council.”
Mr Snowdon doubts the changes will come in this year, as has been proposed by the States of Alderney but he said he’s looking forward to hearing more details about it.
“At the moment, I think the press release from the States of Alderney from Mrs Cameron, the new Chairman of P&F, is that (the changes) will be coming in November. I don’t think it’s going to make it into November, even if it’s supported by the community and supported by the relevant processes with the States just because it takes a lot of time to do this sort of stuff.”
Mr Snowdon currently sits on P&F, the Building and Development Control Committee, and the Economic Development Committee in Alderney, as well as the Committee for the Environment and Infrastructure and the Committee for Home Affairs in Guernsey.
He said reducing the number of politicians could have a negative and expensive impact on governance in Alderney.
“We recently had a big debate about how the States Members are paid in Alderney and obviously everyone says they work hard and it’s a full time job, so will there be more work for everyone else?
“I think there’s also another knock on effect, because if the Members are working a lot more, and in my personal view, which may not be shared with other Members of the States of Alderney, we are a ‘village’ of an island with 2000 people, and we’ve got to remember that and the States already ‘steps up’, but my concern is that if we keep growing the States Members’ work and there are more committee meetings and more policy meetings and more consultancy, that we’re actually going to need a lot more civil servants, and that’s going to be very expensive.
“We’ve got a very good civil service,” he added, “but I’m concerned that Alderney is becoming ‘big government’, and in my personal opinion, it could and will cost a lot more money that we simply can’t afford.”
Regarding the Alderney Representatives work in Guernsey, Mr Snowdon said he would have concerns if the plebiscite was dropped and the representatives are picked by the States instead of the public.
“I think if it gets picked by the States Members, that becomes more of a popularity contest, which I don’t think is good. I think it’s very important that you have a mandate from the public, and what you feel that you can achieve and put into the States of Guernsey, and get that mandate, which I think is respected down here, when you get actually a vote from the Alderney public to actually take things forward, then you’ve got a mandate to be in this assembly here.”
Mr Snowdon thinks any work to reform government should also be in tandem with the work of the Bailiwick Commission which is progressing – with updates due in the next few weeks.
That is intended to ensure all of the islands of the Bailiwick work together on shared issues more closely than they currently to.