The Employment Tribunal is now undertaking a project to put the times and dates of future hearings on-line and has a member of staff specifically working on this project.
In the meantime the JET office - behind the Ann Summers business in Bath Street - sticks a notice on its door at midday on a Friday with details of any meeting planned for the coming week. Hardly satisfactory but that is the state of play there...
We have as yet no further information on Social Security Appeals which are handled by this same office but so far we have been exluded from these supposedly "public" hearings.
The States Greffe advises that there are no Complaints Board hearings currently planned but one is in the pipeline. When and where this might take place is subject to whim - often the hearings take place in Parish Halls and may be closed to the public if deemed "necessary."
We contacted the Judicial Greffier/Viscount some months ago re publishing details of all Court Hearing and Inquests.
There has been some improvement and the electronic screen in the lobby to the main entrance to the States building in Royal Square is now working again and includes inquest times.
We have asked that more details of the nature of hearings might be made available because generally the public have no idea what the cases are about unless personally involved.
We are advised that this aspect is being considered as something to put on the super-duper web-site that is now being "worked on."
Of course we always remind officials that not everybody has access to IT facilities and that there is still a need for a central access point(s) to a comprehensive list of public hearings due - say on a weekly basis. This should be available at the States and Judicial Greffes, CAB and Parish Halls for a start.
This could be extended to include details of ALL official public meetings and hearings that are to take place such as Scrutiny, Parish meetings etc.
The simple external notice board on the wall of the Royal Court building that lists some pending court matters and Scrutiny meetings/hearings is totally inadequate and is of course not accessible to everybody. It is not always kept up to date.
On being able to access buildings and to be able to hear the proceedings are matters that we continue to lobby on.
We have written yet again to the Bailiff''s Office about poor sound quality in ALL the courts and this has clearly beeen circulated because we have received the reply below regarding the Magistrates' newly built facilities.
Attending at the States Chamber recently to hear a judgment (the building is sometimes used as a court) and having climbed the impossible staircase to the public gallery we found that the sound system (for which we had lobbied so long) was not turned on. So nothing could be heard - but a written copy of the "Non Reported" judgment has been provided subsequently.
Signs are another matter of concern. We have asked that all officials in court or other hearings should display their names so that litigants and members of the public can identify who they are.
The Magistrates' court says that names of Judges sitting are posted outside the courts in session but there are other anonymous officials present too. The same applies to Royal Court hearings - especially bearing in mind that hearings often take place in unusual locations.
This week's Royal Court proceedings with a video link to Curtis Warren in his UK prison actually took place in the Magistrates Court....and is the sort of high profile case that could attract public interest.
It is noted that the JEP is publishing much more (but selective) information recently about future hearings etc and we presume that more details are being issued by the Communications Unit of the States or some other body.
Unfortunately, whatever the source of this information - it is not sent to bloggers!
We do not receive any Press Releases either - so remember this if YOU are participating in any such events to keep US informed.
REMEMBER ALSO that information is business. The JEP receives over £300,000 each year to publish official States notices in the Gazette etc and there is much other printing and publishing work to be had.
So keeping the general public in the dark is all part of the scheme - FREE information brings OZO and his friends out in spots. That is why the States Greffe Bookshop loooks like it is running a closing down sale these days and offers so few printed leaflets for free....
The Magistrates Court responded.....
The Ministers for Housing and Social Security both appeared before Scrutiny Panels today and we attended as silent observers.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many issues of concern that arose in the hearings that we cannot report on them all but we shall attempt to do so over future weeks - including we hope relevant video interviews.
One thing for sure is that "social housing" rents are still going up to the 90% of private rents (whatever that means) but the timescale is slowed down over some years (could be as many as twenty).
The theory is that such rents allow Housing to borrow money from the Treasury with an expectation that this can be paid back and the properties properly maintained.
Unfortunately, since higher rents simply mean higher rent subsidies in the form of income support, the money will simply go round and round from tenant to landlord and Treasury and back again via Social Security.
Nobody will actually gain anything but it will create more work for accountants and - it is hoped - some short term employment for building trades. But since there are so few sites ready to proceed with devlopment in the near future - the whole scheme is just built on shifting sands...
The high rents here are all a scam to defeat the working man and line the pockets of greedy fatcat landlords and developers. The developers build properties on a budget based on what the social rental sector monthly rent is set at , ie what La Motte street loony civil servants have set the income support rates at, so the rents payed by the taxpayer (via income support) directly pay the developer's finnance/mortgage on the properties so just enriching the fatcats even more, this does not help the poor at all really, they are just pawns in the game of making a fatcats richer. All just buy to let but on a huge government encouraged scale. My greatest sympathy is with the last few genuine working class local born families who have not thrown in the towel to join the la motte street fatcat enrichment scheme and still ---WORK--- to pay their sky high rent, whilst watching their incomes dwindle because cheap migrant labour on mass has devalued their labour value. Its all a rot on local society
Deleteanonymous at 14.04
ReplyDeletecould not have put it better my self you are 100% right in what you say.
Interesting analysis - hope you have joined SSTAG.
ReplyDeleteUnderlying the current Housing thinking (which was already brewing under Le Main and Power)is simply adherence to Ozouf's User Pays policy for everything.
It matters not at all that there is no such thing as affordable housing accommodation anymore - just change the name here and there and offer to subsidize a few deposits for first time buyers left over from the failed Homebuyer scheme and everything in the garden is rosy.
Meanwhile, screw the poor (which means anyone on a working wage or worse) for every penny - but keep handing outrageous sums to the Finance industry, bonkers film projects and any other whizz kid schmes that might make us all immensely rich for little effort (no hope), promote Jersey rugby to an out of its depth level, pay off bullied CEOs, employ multitudes of outside consultants to rubbish the most senior police officers in the Island besides suspended medical consultants and concealing decades of child abuse, whilst sacking anybody who says booh, failing to sack those who cannot even negotiate a currency fluctuation clause on a £100millions incinerator project,and cancelling a Police HQ project et al at the very last minute on the advice of a "non identified" expert...
£Millions and millions wasted without any calling to account and the Minister of Planning now being lined up as the latest fall guy for high Planning fees and failing to deliver the building sites that are needed - because he is following the Island Plan as agreed by the States just a few months ago and endorsed by outside Planning Consultants!
That's what "User Pays" means in case there were any doubts.