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It could be States on film as deputies consider video

States meetings may soon be broadcast in video as well as audio, through the States website.

A system to broadcast video from States meetings could be in place ahead of this summer’s expected debate on the Tax Review.
A system to broadcast video from States meetings could be in place ahead of this summer’s expected debate on the Tax Review. / Guernsey Press

The possibility has arisen as a result of work by the States Assembly & Constitution Committee to address failings with the current audio streaming service.

While the live-streaming function has generally worked well, notwithstanding recent issues with audio quality, there have been significant issues for anybody wanting to ‘listen back’ to proceedings. This is due to the use of a Microsoft system, which is no longer technically supported, which was brought in during the Covid lockdowns.

The Sacc committee, meeting yesterday, agreed this was unacceptable and has been looking at ways to fix it, charging Deputy Tom Rylatt to lead the work. He reported back to the committee with four potential solutions, but the preference involved video coverage of proceedings.

The full committee needs to consider the proposal but it is possible that it could move quickly enough to have the replacement system in place for the big States Tax Review debate in July.

Elsewhere on yesterday’s Sacc agenda, the committee agreed to invite Deputy Lee van Katwyk into a future meeting to discuss his call to scrap island-wide by-elections.

Members also decided that there was no reason to ask Deputy Gavin St Pier to step down from the committee, following his decision to resign from the Policy & Resources Committee and seek re-election.

He recused himself from the Sacc discussion of his position, and the other four members all agreed no resignation from their committee was required because its mandate was very different to that of P&R.

The vote, however, was not unanimous. Deputy John Gollop said that while he completely agreed with his colleagues, he would prefer to be officially recorded as abstaining.

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