NSMs can bring many benefits to States

The new framework has been brought in by the States Assembly and Constitution Committee simply because of external pressure. Women in Public Life used an access to public information request to disclose the embarrassing fact that the previous recruitment process was wide open to charges of cronyism.

Putting an open, transparent and consistent process in place for these important memberships is a good first step. Beyond that, however, there needs to be a sea change in how States members view their NSM colleagues.

Over the years, some deputies have been implacably and vocally opposed to co-opting talent, on the short-sighted and misguided grounds that non-elected members somehow lacked legitimacy.

The reality is that Guernsey is home to an extraordinary wealth of individual and collective talent, but that many of those people do not seek public office for various reasons.

But all States committees benefit from external assistance and there is a strong argument for making it compulsory, or at least pushing a department to explain why it was not using NSMs.

The big benefit of non-elected members is flexibility. Committees are populated with deputies who have won an election, not necessarily for their ability. NSMs, however, can have practical backgrounds in civil engineering, labour relations, project management or whatever and be co-opted and even released as needed.

Beyond that, recruiting a pool of talent and utilising it as required can also serve as an introduction to public office.

There are many reasons why States committees should use NSMs and it’s to be hoped that the new framework will give fresh impetus to this.

Meanwhile, it says much about established mindsets that it took a pressure group to embarrass government into these limited improvements.