Tristan : St Helena: EXCO REPORT 83 – 20th September 2011
Submitted by Tristan Times (Sarah Glass) 23.09.2011 (Article Archived on 07.10.2011)
This is my 83rd EXCO report and I think that anyone who has heard all 83 probably deserves an award.
EXCO REPORT 83 – 20th September 2011
This is my 83rd EXCO report and I think that anyone who has heard all 83 probably deserves an award. However it was one of the promises I made in my inaugural speech – that I would try to make sure that government became more open. By normally broadcasting the EXCO Report on the same day as the meeting I have achieved at least part of that objective.
At the start of the meeting I pointed out to Councillors that this is our 28th meeting in the last eleven months. It looks as though the number will exceed 30 in the year to the end of October and that is at least 50% more than in any other year of my tenure. This is not because we are having meetings for the sake of it, but it is clear in view of the shorter debates brought about by the efficiency of the committee system, that it is due to a substantial increase in the work load.
We welcomed our new Chief Secretary, Owen O’Sullivan, to the meeting. I am sure that all of us were delighted to see him, not least Gilly Francis who was able to attend once again in her substantive role as Deputy Chief Secretary.
The agenda for the meeting was really short. Indeed I had asked for a meeting to be held so that Owen could get a feel for the style of EXCO. There was only one specific agenda item and as that involved an individual it was on the closed part of the agenda. However we confirmed the minutes of the last meeting held on 13th September and under Matters Arising I promised to clarify a comment I made in my last broadcast that gave the account of that meeting. On that occasion a week ago I said: “...we confirmed that the only students not receiving the allowance will be those where the household income is above £11,000 per year. The actual money received by the student will not count towards that household income as it is specifically intended for the student and not as a welfare payment”.
There is a bit of devil in the detail here and in order to help I will define the situation more precisely. The allowance will be paid only to students from households where the gross income is £11,000 or below. Student Allowances are not included when calculating this gross income. However when it comes to households in receipt of Income Related Benefit, the first £5 per week of the allowance is disregarded for the purpose of calculating IRB. Thus the total amount of IRB would be reduced by the amount of the Student Allowance that is paid above the first £5 per week. This particular rule is set out in the Social Security Regulations.
Under Any Other Business the Acting Financial Secretary passed round copies of the government accounts for the 5 month period to the end of August. On first sight these were not particularly encouraging in that our income is down on budget and so is our expenditure. But the income is down by more than the expenditure and so we have some leeway to make up. However that is not an unusual position to be in at this time of the year and so alarm bells are not ringing.
There was discussion on how we might improve the financial reporting so that individual Departments have a clear view of where they are against their budget, and the Economy and Finance Committee will be looking at this further.
We then went on to consider the rather complicated issue of who will be sitting on what Council Committee after the resignation of the Education Committee. It is not simply a matter of re-distributing those Members around other Committees, as there are issues relating to cross-cutting (the inter-relationships between Committees), as well as having to make sure that EXCO contains a Chairman or deputy Chairman from each of the Committees. That last point is not an essential matter but it was decided two years ago that it would be desirable.
The acting Financial Secretary put forward a revised matrix which EXCO was happy with but at this stage is no more than a recommendation to the other seven Members as there needs to be unity throughout all 12 to make this work.
What was settled however is that the new Education Committee will consist of Rodney Buckley in the Chair, Michael Benjamin as the Deputy Chair and Tara Thomas, who will relinquish her position as a member of the Access & Transport Committee. The Director of Education will also sit as a Member of the Committee and although we have only just begun our search for a new Director, we are pleased that John Sullivan will be able to join us shortly to fill that role for a 6 month period. I expect most of you will remember John who acted as Head Teacher at Prince Andrew School in the last interregnum there.
Councillor Gunnell also announced that the Director of Health & Social Welfare will sit as a full Member of the Health & Social Welfare Committee.
I was then able to confirm to members that I am expecting the response shortly from London to the petition that was sent to the Secretary of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. That response will come in the form of a letter from Henry Bellingham, the Minister for Overseas Territories at the FCO and in the letter he makes it clear that the reply has the backing of the relevant DFID Minister Alan Duncan.
As the meeting closed at around noon I thanked all present for their contributions over the past two years and wished them well for the future.
Andrew Gurr
Governor
20th September 2011
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