Following last week’s resignation of Dr Melissa McCullough as commissioner as a result of the States’ decision not to uphold her recommendation to suspend Deputy Gavin St Pier for a breach of the code of conduct, Sacc president Sarah Hansmann Rouxel said the debate had revealed ‘teething issues’ with the current system.
She said these structural issues related to problems that ‘weren’t thought about properly’ when the standards commission changed from a panel system to an individual, operating on a pan-island basis, in 2023.
Therefore, it was likely that an interim commissioner would be sought while such issues were addressed and reviewed, so as to avoid a similar situation in the future with another permanent commissioner.
‘I think that is where we are leaning on going,’ Deputy Hansmann Rouxel said.
‘I think if we were to just go out and recruit [for a permanent commissioner] now, I don’t think it would be sunshine and roses, because clearly there has been an issue.
‘Personally, I think the issues that we’ve had with this whole process were exacerbated by many, many things that would not happen again, because a lot of them are structural issues or changes in the code that have happened over this long, drawn-out process.’
She confirmed Martin Jelley, the appeals commissioner who was appointed by Dr McCullough, had also resigned in the wake of the debate.
Deputy Hansmann Rouxel said a return to a panel system was ‘definitely in the scope’ of the forthcoming review process, but added there were good reasons why that had previously been ditched in favour of a single commissioner.
‘It was a panel of lay people, they didn’t have the powers of investigation and were all volunteers.
‘They were all ordinary members of the public and anybody could be appointed.’
But with the current system, Deputy Hansmann Rouxel admitted that there were concerns that the system had gone too far in the opposite direction in terms of putting all of the onus on a single person’s judgment.
Consequently, she wondered whether a ‘halfway house’ between the two extremes was possible.
‘I think it is probably something to explore, but it’s early days.’
She confirmed any complaints lodged while the office of commissioner was vacant would be held in abeyance, something which was not uncommon in other jurisdictions.
‘When Melissa McCullough took on the role in the Northern Ireland Assembly, they hadn’t had a commissioner for standards for five years, so there was a backlog of complaints.
‘We’re certainly not going to leave it for five years, as that’s really not ideal, but there’s also the option of putting in an interim which I think we are leaning very strongly towards.’
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.