Guernsey’s government is planning to spend more taxpayer money on its own internal civil service machinery than on educating the island’s children.
That is not political rhetoric from the backbenches – it’s written in black and white inside the latest budget from Policy and Resources (P&R).
Last week, the States agreed to spend £98.2m on Corporate Services – that’s the part of the civil service that’s shared across the whole organisation. Things like HR, PR and Finance.
By contrast, the entire Education, Sport and Culture (ESC) budget is £97.6m – a difference of more than £550,000.
And that’s not the only surprising thing that came out of last week’s budget debate.
Express decided to dig a little deeper.
1. Running the civil service costs more than teaching the island’s children
ESC has been allocated a budget of £97.6m.
That single pot must fund every primary school, secondary school, special-needs service, the Guernsey Institute – as well as arts funding and youth sport across the entire island.
Meanwhile, Corporate Services is handed £98.2m, around half of which goes to paying civil servants.
Corporate Services is the central administrative engine of government, covering areas including human resources, press officers and communications, treasury and finance teams, procurement, and digital technology.
To be fair to the civil service, the money isn’t just going on desk jobs: last year it spent £31.9m on IT infrastructure and £33.3m on property upkeep across States-owned sites.
Even allowing for those wider operational responsibilities, the comparison is striking.
During the budget debate, an amendment seeking to inject £1.6m of extra funding into schools and education was rejected, assuming the ‘cheaper’ Option A budget passed.
Yet running the States’ internal bureaucracy now commands a larger annual budget than all island classrooms combined – and will get £2.5m more than last year.
2. £15.4m has been wiped off Aurigny’s value
Airline turbulence is hitting the public purse hard, but you will not find it listed as an everyday committee grant or departmental budget bid.
Buried in the States’ financial forecasts are two significant entries: an unbudgeted £9.7m impairment relating to 2026, followed by a further £5.7m in 2027. Together, those accounting adjustments amount to £15.4m over 24 months.
The policy letter lists these entries under “impairment for incorporated trading entities”.
That’s accountancy speak for, the States having to write down the value of its investment in Aurigny because the airline is worth less than previously expected.
The States says this was driven by high fuel prices, softening market demand, and the financial drag of having to compete with British Airways.
Because the States acts as sole shareholder, these costs do not show up as regular committee spending requests. Instead, they are written off directly against the island’s bottom-line operating surplus.
While islanders debate hospital charges and bus fares, the government is also having to account for substantial losses in the value of its investment in the island’s airline.
3. A £30m central reserve leaves departments waiting for their pay bill
Look at the individual budget sheets for Health, Home Affairs, or Education, and you won’t find anything covering next year’s, yet-to-be-agreed 2027, public sector pay rises.
None of the individual committee budgets contain a single penny for 2027 staff pay inflation.
Instead, P&R set aside more than £30m in a central holding pen called the Budget Reserve.
The arrangement means individual committees do not yet have a definitive figure for their 2027 staffing costs.
The States’ pay bill was forecast to reach £374.7m in 2026, illustrating the scale of the potential financial exposure.
The financial exposure for taxpayers remains high. Pay awards for nurses, teachers, civil servants, and police officers are not yet settled.
The policy letter estimates that every 0.5% added to those settlements will cost the taxpayer about an extra £2m.
Holding the provision centrally gives P&R flexibility while negotiations continue, but it also means committees will not know their final staffing budgets until the pay settlements are agreed and the money is allocated.
