Guernsey Press

A committee adrift given direction

FOR Home Affairs, the justice strategy should have been a crowning achievement of this term of office.

Published

After all, an all encompassing look at every part of the system was a chance for reform that would benefit the community for generations to come, a real landmark opportunity.

Instead the committee has done little more than waste four years treading water, presenting a green paper to an Assembly in the hope of flushing out even more views when the majority wanted leadership and recommendations.

The committee was either not bold enough to back its own judgement, or so riven with divisions that it could not make one.

There is certainly disharmony. The recent ham-fisted attempt to remove Deputy Victoria Oliver was just one sign of that.

It takes some mental gymnastics to go from not wanting to debate your own vote of no confidence motion to launching into full-on public attacks.

There are polarised views on things like cannabis legislation and regulation.

You want different voices to test policies, but a committee still needs to work through that and come to a point of action.

The States was clearly unimpressed with Home Affairs' attempts and made the most of procedural weaknesses to add direction and timelines to its work.

We are still in the land of review, but at least now there seems to be some end point, not the continual drift.

Many have questioned whether the current system is making the island safer, with too much emphasis on punishment and dealing with the consequences of crime instead of prevention.

There is debate to be had too on whether limited law enforcement resources are being concentrated in the right areas – are we operating a system set up to deal with a society that has long since moved on, with sentencing guidelines that are inconsistent and disproportionate?

But as Deputy Peter Roffey said, we should be beyond asking questions now and instead be seeing answers. That none have appeared after four years is a sign of failure.