States’ new commissioner for standards set to visit

They recently agreed to appoint Dr Melissa McCullough, while at the same time instructing the States Assembly and Constitution Committee to work on a process of appeal against her rulings.

It will carry out that work over the next six months.

Sacc president Carl Meerveld said yesterday that his committee had a video call with Dr McCullough late last week to discuss appeals and will have further talks with her while she is in the island this week.

‘We are hoping to bring a policy letter back to the States in September,’ he said.

Dr McCullough’s appointment runs until 26 April 2028.

She will be responsible for overseeing proper parliamentary behaviour of States members, replacing the code of conduct panel.

She has already been serving as Jersey’s commissioner for standards since March and has been fulfilling the same role for the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2020.

Her CV claims that in Northern Ireland she has ‘cleared a three-year backlog of complaints, transformed processes, procured a new complaint handling system and developed and launched a new website’.

She has degrees in applied ethics, law and biology and a PhD in biomedical sciences.

Deputy Meerveld described the new role as ‘a significant step forward that will bring Guernsey in line with comparable jurisdictions’.

However, other deputies raised so many concern about the absence of an appeals process that Sacc had to agree to return with additional proposals.

‘This is a fundamental flaw in terms of what would be a natural justice process because a member should have the right to appeal,’ said Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller.

She was even more concerned with a proposal that Sacc would be free to add recommendations of its own to any put forward by the commissioner before they were debated by the Assembly.

Scrutiny president Yvonne Burford agreed that Sacc should not have the ability to recommend sanctions without having seen all the evidence and in the absence of the accused.

And Deputy Chris Le Tissier, who was suspended from the States for a year earlier this term due to a conduct issue, agreed.

‘If anyone thinks that you can conduct an appeal in front of 40 people in the Assembly, well that’s cloud cuckoo land – you just can’t do it,’ he said.

Only Deputy Lyndon Trott voted against the appointment of Dr McCullogh when the matter was before the States last month.

He had expressed concern that the commissioner would be able to instigate a case against a States member even in the absence of a complaint from a third party.