Lord Chancellor assures island of its autonomy

Policy & Resources was responding after news broke about the UK Government inserting a clause into a fishing bill that it argues will allow it to legislate for the island.

Guernsey and Jersey have objected behind the scenes to that move since July, but P&R argued yesterday it cannot be used without consent anyway.

Other issues arose in September with the UK’s Internal Markets Bill, P&R said. Although it was not specific on what those were it said they could ‘impact the Bailiwick and UK-EU relationship negotiations’.

Policy & Resources president Gavin St Pier said: ‘I raised various concerns directly with the Lord Chancellor [Robert Buckland] and have now received strong and helpful reassurances from him.

‘That includes the UK’s understanding of the specific circumstances of the Bailiwick and acknowledgement that the Bailiwick’s proposed involvement in the UK-EU future relationship agreement would be a matter for consideration by the Bailiwick’s legislatures after negotiations have concluded.’

P&R released one extract from the Lord Chancellor’s letter: ‘I can assure you of the UK Government’s support for the longstanding constitutional position that the UK Parliament should not legislate for the Crown Dependencies on domestic matters without the Crown Dependencies’ consent’.

It has said it will not release the full letters because they relate to UK-EU negotiations.