Calls for States Assembly and Constitution Committee to resign

SACC President Carl Meerveld said the calls were a "personal vendetta" against him

A growing number of deputies have expressed their support for a vote of no confidence in the States Assembly and Constitution Committee (SACC).

Former Deputy Chief Minister Mark Helyar said he wasn't sure what the committee had achieved since taking office in 2020.

SACC President Carl Meerveld rejected this suggestion.

He said the move was due to his support for a motion of no confidence in Policy and Resources (P&R) last year.

He said: "This committee is being swept up in a personal vendetta against me, it's retribution that I decided the last P&R weren't serving the best interests of the community."

Mr Meerveld said his committee's record in office was good.

"We've had managed to introduce simultaneous electronic voting in the States and a new commissioner for standards for deputies."

He claimed his committee had delivered more policy letters than the Economic Development Committee.

Political analysis - John Fernandez

Deputy Meerveld is no stranger to the cut and thrust of politics, he's survived a vote of no confidence in Education, Sport and Culture last term and some say was the mastermind behind the success of the most recent forcing out of Policy and Resources.

He believes this is a political move to remove him as revenge for turning on his old allies.

They say his committee has achieved very little.

The argument is a lot of the work brought to the States this term is actually work done by the previous committees finally bearing fruit.

Mr Meerveld is bullish he'll survive the attempts to force his resignation, if they emerge.

Mr Helyar said: "It would be interesting to see what Deputy Meerveld feels being on the end of a motion of no confidence.

"I would support it and I don't think this committee has done anything, and I don't think it's behaving as a parliamentary committee should.

"It doesn't seem there is a lot of effort going in to doing the things which have been promised.

"For example I asked Deputy Meerveld two years ago to work on new code of conduct rules for non-States members, as there has been some concern about their behaviour online, I was given an undertaking it'd be done and it hasn't, it's as simple as that."

Former Policy and Resources Member David Mahoney was also critical of the work of SACC

Former P&R member David Mahoney said: "I can't see what they've been doing for three years to put it bluntly.

"All we heard from Deputy Meerveld was about the lack of resources his committee has and I want to see if that's true."

Deputies Gavin St Pier, Liam McKenna and Simon Fairclough are on the committee alongside Deputy Yvonne Burford who was elected to it earlier this week.

Following a statement in the States of Guernsey from Mr Meerveld on the work of his committee, he faced a number of questions about why the SACC had "achieved so little".

He was accused of "hiding" behind excuses after he blamed a lack of staff working with the committee.

Economic Development Committee President Neil Inder asked for SACC to publish a plan for the committee's future work.