The policymakers are officers, who report directly to Environment Minister Deputy John Young.
It is Deputy Young who will have the ultimate say on the hospital planning application, after hearing advice from an independent planning inspector.
Speaking during a Scrutiny Panel hearing yesterday, Deputy John Young said he believed this structure needs to change.
However, he said that that was a personal opinion, and it would be the job of the next Council of Ministers to decide if structural change was needed in Government.
Deputy Young stressed that planning officers, who recently recommended that the Hospital application is rejected, continued to carry out their jobs without influence and with complete independence.
“I have raised this with the Chief Executive, and I have seen the very clear protocols that are in place,” he commented.
Pictured: Planning inspector Philip Staddon will run a week-long inquiry starting 4 April in order to make a recommendation to the Environment Minister.
“Kelly [Whitehead] is newly appointed as the Director of Regulation and the political instructions I gave her and her predecessor was that the planning officers who were asked by the applicant to give pre-application advice in respect of the Government’s own hospital application should do so without fear or favour, and they were to advise me if there was any attempt to put undue influence on them that would breach those protocols.
“I am pleased to say that that has been maintained and there has been no breach. The planning officer’s evidence is there for all to see on the planning inquiry website and so is the applicant’s evidence. There are hundreds of documents, which will all be dealt with at the inquiry.
He added: “I admire and support our officers giving independent advice because I have done that job myself [as a civil servant] and I have seen in the past where political pressure has been put on planning officers when a matter of great controversy occurs.
“That is something that I am not prepared to countenance.”
“The situation far from ideal and is a consequence of a Government structure that was introduced and I did not have a hand in. I personally don’t think it can remain that way and it needs review, but that is a task for the next Government and not me.
“But I am absolutely confident that we have maintained probity and independence of the planning service because if it was to break down, I think the island would be in dead trouble.”
At the hearing, Mr Scate said that the structures in place were robust.
“There are very clearly defined roles within each team in Government to do their professional jobs,” he said. “If it was not thus, then we would have a blurring of applicant, policy maker and regulator for the benefit of Government, and that would not give us good probity in our decision making.
“Each team is there to take an independent view. The Government as an applicant would expect to have their application judged in the same way as anyone else.”
The £804m ‘Our Hospital’ application – which details the largest capital project ever undertaken in Jersey – will be the subject of a week-long planning inquiry due to begin next month.
Independent inspector Philip Staddon will then make a recommendation to Deputy Young on whether he should approve the application or not.
READ MORE…
FOCUS: Why Planning is saying NO to the £800m hospital plans