News

Next week’s States Meeting

On Monday 29 June, the States Assembly will convene at 9.30am to appoint the new Council of Ministers and Heads of Scrutiny and the Privileges and Procedures Committee. 

The meeting takes place in the States Chamber and is open for the public to attend, as well as being broadcast live on our website and on the States Assembly YouTube channel. 

Appointment of the Council of Ministers: 

Chief Minister designate, Deputy Lyndon Farnham, will propose his choice of Ministerial candidates (see our news pages for nominees), and States Members will then have the opportunity to nominate their own preferred candidates for each Ministerial role, if they wish to do so. 

As Monday’s States Meeting progresses, the Chief Minister designate may choose to amend his preferred candidates for certain positions if at any point the Assembly appoints a candidate who was not nominated by the Chief Minister designate. 

The Ministerial roles being elected are:  

Minister for Health and Social Services 

Minister for Justice and Home Affairs 

Minister for External Relations 

Minister for Social Security 

Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning 

Minister for Children and Families 

Minister for Environment 

Minister for Housing 

Minister for Infrastructure 

Minister for International Development 

Minister for Sustainable Economic Development 

Minister for Treasury and Resources 

Speeches and question time 

Each candidate will give a speech for up to ten minutes and answer questions from the Assembly for up to twenty minutes before the Assembly votes.

Candidates for the same Ministerial office cannot be present during each other’s speeches or question time. When a candidate is giving their speech and being questioned, the other candidates for that role will leave the Chamber. 

Uncontested candidates are still required to speak and answer questions put forward by the Assembly. However there is no vote for their role; they are automatically appointed. 

Voting 

If the appointment is contested, Members will vote for their preferred candidate or have the option to abstain. The candidate who receives more than half of the votes cast is appointed.  

In instances where there are more than two candidates, if no candidate has more than half of the votes, the candidate with the lowest number of votes must withdraw from the contest and another vote then takes place. 

The results of how each States Member voted will be made public via a news story on the States Assembly website. 

Once the last Minister has been selected, the Chief Minister designate and the appointees selected will form the new government. 

Appointment of the Chair of the Privileges and Procedures Committee 

The Presiding Officer will invite nominations for the Chair of the Privileges and Procedures Committee. Ministers and Assistant Ministers are not eligible for appointment to this position. Each nomination must be seconded.  

The speech, question and voting process is identical to the procedure described above for Ministers. 

Appointment of the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee 

The Presiding Officer will then invite nominations for the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee. Ministers and Assistant Ministers are not eligible for appointment to this position. Each nomination must be seconded.  

The speech, question and voting process is identical to the procedure described above for Ministers.  

Appointment of the Chairs of the 5 Scrutiny Panels 

Ministers and Assistant Ministers are not eligible for appointment to these positions. The appointments will be made in the following order: 

            (a) Corporate Services 

            (b) Economic and International Affairs 

            (c) Children, Education and Home Affairs 

            (d) Environment, Housing and Infrastructure 

            (e) Health and Social Security 

For each Panel, the relevant Ministers are prevented from either nominating candidates or taking part in the final vote. 

The speech, questions and voting process are identical to the procedure described above for Ministers. All Ministers are able to partake in the questioning of the candidates.

Appointment of the Chair of the Planning Committee 

Ministers, and Assistant Ministers for the Environment, are not eligible for appointment to this position. The procedure to be followed is identical to the procedure described above for Ministers.

A summary of this meeting will be shared at the end of the day on the news section of the States Assembly website.