The Budget includes:
- Estimated income and expenditure of the Consolidated Fund.
- Amounts to be internally transferred between States Funds.
- Any other proposed financing.
- Revenue Expenditure Growth and Projects and their proposed costs.
- Estimated income and expenditure from States Trading Operations to be paid into the States Trading Operations Fund.
- Amounts to be appropriated from the Consolidated and States Trading Operations Funds for the next financial year.
- Estimated amounts in States Funds at the start and finish of each financial year.
- Borrowing and Debt Management Framework.
The Proposed Budget (Government Plan) 2025-2028 Review
Each Scrutiny Panel launched individual reviews of the Proposed Budget (Government Plan) 2025-2028 in August and September 2024.
The comprehensive review raised issues of a lack of detail and transparency of information in the spending of public money. In addition, there are concerns over the monitoring and reporting of the Budget amid no accompanying detail to inform on progress for the preceding year, or departmental Business Plans for 2025.
All five Scrutiny Panels conducted their own reviews into the Government’s revenue and spending proposals for 2025, with the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel (CSSP) taking the lead in reporting on the overarching recommendations, which are supported by all Panels. CSSP and the other Panels have also lodged nine Amendments to the Budget.
The next section provides further information about the overarching recommendations from the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel.
Overarching Recommendations
Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel
The review of the Proposed Budget 2025-2028 resulted in 19 overarching recommendations, some of these include:
• That supporting information is published at the same time as the Budget in future to ensure transparency and clarity in departmental spending plans.
• That a mechanism is established to provide monitoring and progress reports.
• That a communications plan is developed to actively engage the public.
• That a risk assessment is undertaken to understand the trade-offs that will incur as a result of reprioritisation plans aligned with the Common Strategic Policy.
• That as restructuring and reprioritisation continues it is monitored to assess the impact on service delivery and staff retention.
• That investment is made in robust high quality and timely data models to be used in decision-making.
• That Sustainable Wellbeing is embedded in all future Budgets and Gender Responsive Budgeting is developed.
The next section provides a list of the Amendments to the Budget from Scrutiny Panels.
Amendments
Amendments to the Budget from Scrutiny Panels:
• Amendment 3: Corporate Services Panel. Statistics Jersey Funding: Read more
• Amendment 4: Corporate Services Panel. Public Services Ombudsman: Read more
• Amendment 5: Children, Education and Home Affairs Panel. Apprenticeship Support. Read more
• Amendment 6: Hospital Review Panel. To provide a breakdown of expenditure for the new Healthcare Facilities. Read more
• Amendment 10: Health and Social Security Panel. Funding for the Termination of Pregnancy (Jersey) Law. Read more
• Amendment 11: Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Panel. Increase Vehicle Emissions Duty. Read more
• Amendment 15: Children, Education and Home Affairs Panel. Highlands College Repairs. Read more
• Amendment 19: Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Panel. Fort Regent Development. Read more
• Amendment 20: Economic and International Affairs Panel. Jersey Business and Digital Jersey Savings. Read more
Please note: Amendments 4 and 10 have been accepted by the Council of Ministers and will therefore not be separately debated.
The next section provides a list of the Comments from other Scrutiny Panels in relation to the Budget.
Panel Comments and Reports
To read the Scrutiny Panel Comments and Reports in relation to the Budget:
Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel: Read here
• The Economic and International Affairs Panel: Read here
• Children, Education and Home Affairs Panel: Read here
• Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Panel: Read here
• Health and Social Security Panel: Read here
What happens next?
The debate on the Proposed Budget 2025-2028 is taking place in the States Assembly from Tuesday 26th November at 9.30am (with the States Assembly starting the meeting on Monday at 2.15pm to go through Question time). It is expected to last several days.
You can read about the Proposed Budget (Government Plan) 2025-2028 and the review work undertaken by each Panel in more detail by clicking on the following links: