States spends £255k on police officer legal costs

The Committee for Home Affairs said it was "deeply concerned" by the "politicisation" of the court proceedings

A total of £255,000 of public money has been spent defending Guernsey Police officers in court, the States has been told.

At the beginning of May, the Freedom of Information (FOI) Appeals Panel ruled that the figure should be released because of overriding public interest.

The Committee for Home Affairs said it was "deeply concerned" by the "politicisation" of the court proceedings and that it had "sought to be as transparent as possible".

Rob Prow, President of the Committee for Home Affairs, argued that the figure was already in the public domain.

The committee said police officers had defended themselves against legal claims from two members of the community relating to an alleged domestic incident in 2021.

Mr Prow said it was happy to help provide financial support.

He said: "The committee were prepared to support officers' costs, given their status as office-holders rather than employees, which means that they were sued directly.

"This figure comprised costs charge against the committee budget of £5,000 and £250,000 paid from the state's insurance deductible fund.

"All other costs were recoverable from the state's corporate insurance arrangements."

Mr Prow did not comment on how much insurers paid on top of the £255,000.

'Confidential contractual matter'

The committee said the “pressure” to release further information was "to effectively ascertain how much the States’ insurers paid, to provide the total cost" and that the information was "not the committee’s to give".

It said it understood and respected that "senior Bailiwick law enforcement officers have engaged with the officers who have stated that they do not wish this confidential information to be disclosed".

It added that the overall costs incurred by the officers remained "a confidential contractual matter between them and the legal practice".