Proposed budget lacks detail, say deputies

Deputy Helen Miles said there was not enough detail in the government's proposed budget

Several backbenchers have voiced concerns over what they say is a lack of detail in the Government of Jersey's proposed budget.

The criticisms centre around the lack of departmental plans, which politicians said would allow them to better understand each minister's spending priorities.

Defending the draft budget, Treasury Minister Deputy Elaine Millar said politicians were asking "for information that hadn't been provided in the past".

Politicians are due to start debating the government's 2025-2028 budget in the States Assembly on Tuesday.

Deputy Elaine Millar said politicians were asking for information that had not been given in past budgets

The proposed budget would see £710m invested into building the new acute hospital at Overdale, £31m invested into other health facilities and freezes in alcohol and fuel duty.

A support package would also be made available to help businesses pay their staff a living wage.

Deputy Helen Miles, chairwoman of the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel, said: "We are very concerned about the detail in this budget, every single scrutiny panel has said it's been difficult to get to grips with the detail in the budget for each area of their remit.

"In the past we have had departmental business plans and we have had ministerial priorities, but those haven't been available for scrutiny to analyse this year and it's made our job that bit more challenging," she said.

'No clarity'

Her concerns were shared by Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Deputy Inna Gardiner.

Her committee holds the government to account on how it spends public money.

Gardiner said: "It's very difficult for us to say we are happy with this budget for this department when I don't know how much we are going to spend on women's health or inclusion.

"In each department there is no clarity on what's in and what's out."

Deputy Jonathan Renouf, who sits on the hospital review panel, said he was also frustrated by the "lack of transparency".

"We have Overdale hospital being built, but there are other hospital projects being built that have little information on what they will cost, what they will be used for and how they will be staffed," he said.

Millar said the scrutiny panels had had the draft budget since August.

"The main complaint, as I understand it, is that we don’t have ministerial plans anymore," she said.

"Ministerial plans were introduced by [Deputy Kristina Moore], so we only had ministerial plans for two years.

"Previous scrutiny panels have managed to scrutinise without ministerial plans."