Hybrid States meetings are to be scrapped

Hybrid meetings – with deputies appearing in person or online – have been held on occasions in recent months, when some members were unable to be in the States chamber and took part in the meeting remotely via Microsoft Teams. But following the ending of Covid restrictions, the States Assembly and Constitution Committee has considered whether hybrid meetings should continue, and decided not.

President Carl Meerveld said he had not been approached by any deputies asking for a hybrid meeting in February and he asked if any Sacc members wanted the committee to carry out a formal review of the value of such meetings.

During lockdown some States meetings had taken place entirely online via Teams and he said that in his opinion this was preferable to a hybrid meeting, which he had previously called ‘the worst of all worlds’. A brief discussion among the committee saw the issue of what constitutes a quorum referred to and Deputy Meerveld said the 1948 Reform Law needed looking into and updated.

But members unanimously rejected doing any more work on holding future hybrid meetings.