The government’s approach to crisis management could be overhauled in the wake of recent drone disruption at Jersey Airport, the Home Affairs Minister has said.
Speaking at a Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel hearing yesterday, Senator Helen Miles said that the Island needed emergency legislation that was “fit for purpose”.
She had previously told the panel that the current Emergency Powers and Planning (Jersey) Law 1990 reflects an outdated risk environment.
The Home Affairs Minister added yesterday that the legislation was drafted “in completely different times”, before adding that “things have changed hugely” since it was first approved.
“So, we need a law that is now fit for purpose,” she added.
You don’t know what you don’t know, and I guess that was the issue with the drones over the weekend
Home affairs minister Helen miles
Panel member Deputy Chris Rebindaine asked the Home Affairs Minister how updated legislation would help Jersey respond to “cyber-attacks, infrastructure failures and, dare I say it, drones?”.
Senator Miles said it was important to develop an “enabling law around resilience”, but to “allow flexibility within that to respond to emerging situations”.
She told the hearing that her department is also in the process of updating the Jersey emergency risk register following the drone activity last weekend.
“Our emergency risk register actually tends to follow what has been on the national emergency risk register, and actually, drones weren’t on that one either,” she pointed out.
A more flexible approach to planning, she suggested, would leave Jersey better positioned to deal with unprecedented threats to Island security.
“You don’t know what you don’t know,” she reflected. “And I guess that was the issue with the drones over the weekend.”
