Guernsey politician rejects report on Gatland visit

The British and Irish Lions coach was allowed to visit the island to evaluate facilities

A Guernsey politician has rejected a report's findings about a visit of British Lions rugby coach Warren Gatland during the pandemic.

In March 2021 Gatland visited Guernsey, without isolating, to see if the team could have a camp on the island.

An internal review of the island's pandemic response said the Gatland visit was a "failure".

But Deputy Peter Ferbrache said while the incident left a "sour taste", it was not a failure.

In the end the British Lions went to Jersey for a training camp.

Mr Ferbrache, chair of the Civil Contingencies Authority (CCA), said: "I think the Warren Gatland stuff was a nonsense.

"We made sure all the rules were complied with and everything was done in good faith.

"Mr Gatland went away and others went away thinking Jersey is a much friendlier place than Guernsey, which it isn't."

The review said: "There was one notable failure in respect of variations and plans put in place to facilitate activity in a safe manner.

"It must be noted that one high-profile instance was the variation for visiting Lions rugby coach Warren Gatland, which resulted in concerns in the community about the fairness of this specific case.

"It is accepted that the reasons for the trip to the Bailiwick and the measures put in place to ensure islanders safety and enable the decision making around the appropriateness of those measures, should have been explained more clearly."

'Opportunity missed'

Former CCA chair, Deputy Gavin St Pier, lamented the lack of independent oversight of the report.

In 2022 the States voted against an independent review, in favour of an internal one.

Mr St Pier said this was "an opportunity missed" by the States to learn lessons off the back of the island's pandemic response.

"The absence of external insight and challenge is an opportunity missed, now the States made that decision to do the work internally and that is reflected in the report.

"It's very granular, in terms of re-affirmation that the right decisions were made and that is a missed opportunity. It has a tone of confidence that all the right calls were made.

"But the big questions about when we locked down wasn't asked."

Mr Ferbrache disagrees that an opportunity has been missed.

"The States made a decision and we live in a democracy," he said.

"We could have spent £250,000 or possibly more to tell us nothing.

"The statistics show we had fewer deaths per thousand in our population than other jurisdictions like Jersey.

"I'm not sure what more we could have analysed."

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