Pair call into question powers of CCA and Public Health boss

The CCA and the Medical Officer of Health are able to insist on its rules being followed and have the power to invoke hefty fines for those who do not comply. These powers have to be renewed periodically.

Now two Guernsey residents have emailed all deputies demanding they apply greater scrutiny to the continued rolling over of these powers.

‘You could be forgiven for believing you were reading a policy of a police state, not a supposedly democratic free society,’ Marc Breton and Nick Robilliard wrote in an email sent to all deputies at the weekend.

‘In our view the provisions of this law are completely excessive in their entirety, particularly in the context of our Covid-19 rates of hospitalisations and deaths, which have vastly reduced in 2021 compared to 2020.’

They drew attention to Dr Nicola Brink’s role as Medical Officer of Health and director of Public Health, a statutory role for the island, and described the post as carrying ‘a huge and unfettered amount of discretionary power’ for an unelected individual.

‘Decisions made by them must be afforded a higher level of scrutiny than this law allows. There appears to be an alarming lack of protection for the rights and freedoms of individuals in the fabric of this law,’ they said.

Under the emergency powers, the MoH is able to insist that islanders be medically examined, be taken to hospital or ‘other suitable establishment’ and even that they be detained and ‘disinfected or decontaminated’.

‘The CCA needs to justify why this is still necessary,’ Mr Breton said.

‘The laws were brought in when it was felt there was potentially an urgent need to protect people but now we have had more than 5,000 cases and we’ve got just three people in hospital. The wording of the law needs to change to restrict these powers.’

He said he wanted more detail to define the precise restrictions that can be imposed on a person’s movements, who they are with, and on their ability to work or trade.

The two men also described the MoH’s right to enter a home and remove someone for detention as ‘a horrific notion’.

‘We struggle to comprehend how anyone could read this law and not be disturbed by its excesses,’ they said.

States Assembly and Constitution Committee president Carl Meerveld confirmed that with the powers having been ratified at the end of November for a period of three months, the law was expected to be revisited again in February.

He acknowledged that there was concern about the extent of the powers but suggested things had changed even since the most recent ratification three weeks ago.

‘The emergence of the Omicron variant is an indication things are continuing to evolve,’ he said.

‘It’s appropriate that the CCA should continue to have the executive powers to deal with emerging issues in a proportionate manner. However, I’m looking forward to the day when the CCA can be dissolved and we can go back to normal.’