A politician is asking for £79,000 to ensure a lifestyle survey continues to be conducted annually amid budget cuts.
Deputy Louise Doublet is asking for the funding to keep the Jersey Opinions and Lifestyle Survey going each year rather than every two years, as currently planned.
She said that reducing the frequency of the survey means that “vital policy will fall behind the issues currently faced by islanders”.
It comes after Statistics Jersey announced that budget cuts would force the lifestyle survey to alternate years with the Children and Young Persons Survey.
The Jersey Opinions and Lifestyle survey is used to gather data on the experiences, opinions, and behaviours of islanders.
This information is then used to inform government policy and decision-making.
It covers a wide range of topics, including the cost of living, health and wellbeing, housing, employment, satisfaction, and various lifestyle factors.
Deputy Doublet pointed to the fact that over 50,000 islanders have contributed to the survey over the last 18 years.
“This is a significant number of people, nearly half the population of the island, who have been provided the opportunity to voice any potential difficulties they are experiencing,” she said.
“The survey being undertaken annually ensures that trends can be more accurately tracked within these groups to better understand if policies are effectively helping those that are the intended target.”
Deputy Doublet explained that last year’s survey highlighted that 32% of households struggled to meet housing costs.
“This is valuable statistical data needed to inform policy to target the most vulnerable in the island,” she said.
“If the survey is changed, as planned, to a bi-annual basis vital policy will fall behind the issues currently faced by islanders.”
Deputy Doublet added that, due to the rotational nature of the survey questions, the shift to biennial reporting could mean some key policy topics are only covered every four to eight years.
She argued that this would government and politicians with limited data – sometimes just one data point per political term – to base their proposals on.
“If we are serious as an Assembly about making reasonable, evidence-based decisions that accurately reflect the needs and views of our islanders across all our parishes, then we must urgently restore the JOLS survey to run on an annual basis,” she concluded.
You can read the full proposition online.