Environment and Infrastructure (E&I) has insisted it was not trying to discourage Deputy Ross Le Brun from asking questions – while simultaneously warning that answering them can take civil servants away from their “core responsibilities”, potentially delaying projects.

E&I President Deputy Adrian Gabriel made the comments after Express reported that the committee had taken the – apparently unique – decision to disclose the time civil servants spent answering two sets of Le Brun’s Rule 14 questions about traffic.

Deputy Le Brun had previously defended his questions as part of “doing the job” he was elected to do and meeting his manifesto promises.

“These won’t be the last questions I ask,” he said, adding: “I’m getting on with what I was elected to do.”

Now Deputy Gabriel has said the time was included “in the interests of transparency”.

Taking civil servants away from projects

Deputy Gabriel said the extraordinary decision to include civil servants’ time in the Rule 14 answers was “not intended as a criticism of any individual, nor to discourage questions about road safety or any other subject that the committee is working on”.

But he also said answering Rule 14 questions could take up “significant” amounts of civil servants’ time and, in some cases, “divert officers from core operational responsibilities and project work”.

That, it said, could “result in delays to other areas of the committee’s programme”.

What did we ask – and was it answered?

We put four questions to E&I about the decision to publish the time spent answering Deputy Le Brun’s questions.

Here’s what they said – and what they didn’t.

Who decided to include the information?

🟠 Partly answered. E&I said the information was included in “the committee’s response”, but did not say whether the decision was made by Deputy Adrian Gabriel, the wider committee, or in consultation with civil servants working for them.

Why was it included?

✅ Answered. E&I said the information was included “in the interests of transparency” and was not intended to criticise or discourage any deputy.

Will this happen again?

❌ Not answered. E&I did not say whether the time spent answering Rule 14 questions will be routinely published in future, or whether this was prompted by the volume of questions from one deputy.

Is logging officer time standard practice?

❌ Not answered. E&I did not say whether officers routinely record the time spent answering Rule 14 questions, or whether they were specifically asked to record it on this occasion.