Digital transformation

In June 2019, the States of Deliberation approved a major policy letter putting in place a new structure to support the provision of digital services, supporting the appointment of Agilysis as a key partner in their delivery. The cost runs to over £200m over 10 years and is the biggest…

Continue reading

Electronic Voting in the States

I made this speech when I laid an amendment seeking to introduce electronic voting to the States. I was pleased that it passed. Sir, Electronic Voting is one of those subjects, like Sunday Trading that just keeps on coming back. Indeed I believe this is Deputy Lowe’s 10th debate on…

Continue reading

GDPR

This is the speech I made in the States when we debated the introduction of GDPR. This is for anyone who thinks government is too big and there are too many civil servants. Sir, before I go any further I should like to point out up front that I will…

Continue reading

Public Accounts Committee Legacy Report

On the last day of the last States meeting of the 21012-2016 term I presented the legacy report of the Public Accounts Committee. I have been proud and honoured to represent the Committee for 4 years and believe it is in a better place than at the start of the…

Continue reading

Increasing the Powers and Resources of Scrutiny

The Public Accounts Committee and Scrutiny Committee laid a joint policy letter to the States at the February States meeting. This was very important to me as I had wanted to increase the powers and resources of the scrutiny function before I was elected and everything I have witnessed since I…

Continue reading

Constitutional Investigation Committee

I was a member of the Constitutional Investigation Committee, that looked into increasing Guernsey’s power in terms of the passing of laws and ratification of treaties. It was a fascinating committee to be on and I learned a lot about the history of Guernsey’s relationship with the Crown as well…

Continue reading

SRC – 3rd Policy Letter – SMC powers

I was delighted that an amendment I laid against the policy letter, seeking to extend the powers of the new Scrutiny Management Committee to agents of government, was approved in November. This will definitely strengthen scrutiny in the next term. My speech is below. Sir, In a nutshell this amendment…

Continue reading

SRC – 3rd Policy Letter – annual uprating report

My third successful amendment against the SRC report set the same restrictions on amendments to the SSD annual uprating report as the budget. My speech is below. Sir, a minor amendment, but it is important nevertheless. Basically this requires that amendments to the annual uprating report have to follow the…

Continue reading

SRC 3rd Policy Letter – States’ accounts

I laid a successful amendment against the policy letter to ensure that specific time is set aside every year to debate the States’ accounts. My speech is below. Sir, I think it would be useful to clarify the effect of this amendment. It is not to set aside a whole…

Continue reading

Public Sector Reform – personal comment

I made the following speech on public sector reform during the debate in September 2015. Sir, speaking personally, normally I have to say that my natural scepticism could have kicked in and I would say that it is a lot of nice, fancy words – ‘motherhood and apple pie’ –…

Continue reading