At last month’s tax reform debate Policy and Resources (P&R) got the Assembly to cut debate short, in an attempt to get the controversial 3% GST policy through in one sitting.
Even then, it needed to guillotine several alternative proposals, meaning they weren’t even debated – including Deputy David Goy’s PIT proposals.
Now P&R is proposing cutting debate short again, with the budget due to be debated, including a whopping 30 amendments, with committees asking for nearly £20m extra in total.
Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez wrote to deputies proposing to cut speeches from 15 minutes down to five – with seven-and-a-half minutes allowed for opening speeches.
It also proposed a second motion if the first failed, calling for six-minute speeches, with nine for opening speeches.
Deputy Garry Collins accused P&R of weaponising time limits to shut down scrutiny of its spending plans.
What are the normal rules?
Under the States’ normal rules of debate, deputies can speak for up to 15 minutes, with longer allowances for opening and closing speeches.
The Assembly can vote to suspend those rules and impose shorter time limits, as P&R is proposing for next week’s budget debate.
However, P&R’s decision to do so at the last States meeting caused controversy, with GST opponents accusing the top committee of stifling debate and trying to force through its preferred policy without proper scrutiny.
The controversy came off the back of criticism of P&R for refusing to share its GST modelling or even the methodology behind it.
