Falklands : Report of Executive Council Meeting held on Wednesday 27 June 2012
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 07.07.2012 (Article Archived on 21.07.2012)
Present were MLAs Sharon Halford, Ian Hansen and myself. I was standing in for MLA Jan Cheek who is presently outside the Islands and Ian was standing in for MLA Dick Sawle.
Report of Executive Council Meeting held on Wednesday 27 June 2012
By the Honourable Gavin Short MLA
Present were MLAs Sharon Halford, Ian Hansen and myself. I was standing in for MLA Jan Cheek who is presently outside the Islands and Ian was standing in for MLA Dick Sawle.
Also present were the Chief Executive, Acting Fin Sec and Commander British Forces for the Falklands. In the absence of the Governor Mr Nigel Haywood, the meeting was ably chaired by Mr Ric Nye.
There was, as per normal a mixed bag on the agenda.
As always we started with the task status report. It was noted that rather than shrinking, as one would hope, it seems at best to stay static or indeed get longer. The lack of a legal drafter is not helping but with luck we should be back to full strength fairly shortly and there are plans to have another drafter here on a fixed term contract which it is hoped will start making inroads into the backlog.
Exco noted the Falkland Landholdings Corporation budget for the forthcoming year and was heartened by the financial position that it was in, thanks in part to better wool prices, sales of stock to the abattoir and the hard work of all the staff in the Landholdings organisation. The allocation of funds from the previous year’s profits to be invested in equipment for the provision of wind turbine s and ancillary kit to provide 24 hour power to Goose Green and Fitzroy was also noted.
A paper proposing the setting up of a Grenadier fishery was also taken and approved. This will be a licensed fishery in the beginning as this will give time to see how it goes before it is brought into the ITQ system. There will also be a permanent fishery observer on the vessel taking part in this fishery as we wish to monitor closely how it goes and also any by catch, especially that of toothfish, which is a high value species that overlap the grenadier fishing ground in places. The fishery observer will be paid for by the company that holds the licence for the Grenadier fishery so will not be a financial burden on FIG
A paper outlining the breakdown of allocation of funds for the camp roads programme for this coming year was noted and approved.
A paper proposing and extra statutory concession covering capital gains in the oil and gas industries was presented. The effect of our present legislation means that any monies paid by a “buy in partner” would be treated as a capital gain and taxed as such and could mean that a company could actually be bankrupt before the proceeds of extracted hydrocarbons started to come back into the company. The effect of this Extra Statutory Concession is that we will put the capital gains tax portion on any monies received as the result of a buy in on ice for five years or until monies are received from the sales of extracted hydrocarbons, whichever happens the soonest. This is not us waiving any taxes that are due but giving companies a period of time to have revenues coming in before we started looking for them to pay the capital gains tax.
An update from the group looking into environmental mainstreaming was presented and noted and blessing given to take the project to the next stage which, for example would look at our position in the Convention of Biological diversity. We also flagged the issue that there looks to be cost implications and these would need to be investigated and present in the next paper as originally it was stated that there would be no cost.
A revised paper covering the designation of Seal Lion Island as a National Nature Reserve was approved.
The guidance notes for the production of offshore environmental impact statements for field developments were approved. The paper has been scrutinized by the minerals group and is basically a guideline for operators wishing to drill etc this is work that is very much forward looking towards further drilling and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the waters around the Falklands.
A paper that outlines the mechanics to implement a fixed penalty system for motorists in the Islands was presented and we approved it to go to the next stage in its evolution which is the public consultation phase. The paper shows the mechanics of how it may work plus a schedule of what might attract a fixed penalty notice, the serving of it, the amount of a penalty for a given infraction, rights to appeal via the courts etc.
Next on the agenda was a paper from the Attorney General advising the need to change the Criminal Justice Ordinance (part 10) which covers bail provisions. This follows a successful appeal in the UK which the AG feels could well make its presence felt down here. It covers the time a person can be held in custody for questioning, released and then re-detention for further questioning during the time of being on bail. It will not lead to any lengthening of the time a person can be held in detention but merely plugs a possible area of challenge.
The next paper to be presented was eye-catching and titled “Delegation of Functions Relating to the Registration of Ships in the Falkland Islands”. This paper basically updates on work undertaken so far. This actually stems from a question raised in Exco in 2010 when it was asked why such permissions had to be ratified by Exco and not by an officer. To bring about a full delegation would be quite complicated as a lot of the steps that have to be followed are enshrined in ordinances and would require a fair bit of time trawling through the relevant sections, re-writing and presenting to Legco for amendment. We have asked that the Collector of Customs prepare another paper showing just what could be easily changed, the remainder will have to wait its turn and as we only infrequently have vessels registered here and also given that the Governor can delegate powers, it was felt that this matter did not have a high level of urgency and officers were better spending their time grappling with the more pressing issues that we have.
A paper that sought permission to formalize the information that is already being asked for in the Farming Stats returns was approved as it was understood that farmers had been consulted and no objections had been received.
The third quarter Performance report for the FIG was presented and noted.
A paper from the DHE/Training centre manager was presented seeing to convert a casual position to full time for a person to cover the Young Apprenticeships scheme 14 to 16 (key stage 4 years 10 and 11) and also to move the scheme from its present pilot stage to being fully incorporated into the school curriculum. As the conversion of the position would not have any financial consequences we agreed that this could be done, initially on a one year fixed term basis..
As background, the scheme has been operational since 2008 and allows participating students to follow a more flexible curriculum by incorporating vocational training. Participating students, who are FICS based, spend two days a week at the training centre working towards a range of fully accredited vocational qualifications such as IVQs and VRQs as well as the essential Skills Qualification in English, Maths and ICT. The courses are made up of classroom activities, practical training and directed work experience. The scheme has been a victim of its own success with exceptional increases in student numbers year on year.
Finally a paper was presented asking us to note the appointment of surveyors to undertake the annual checks on the RRS Shackelton and the MV Protegat both of which are on our register. This is another item that suffers from ancient ordinances and is something that probably should not be anywhere near Exco.
We moved onto the AOB section and there were a few items raised which included:
Old Age Pensions: Although any increase in the pensions paid rates are announced as part of the budget process, they only take effect in the following January. We asked that changes are made that would allow for the higher rate of pension to be paid from the 1st of July each year. Obviously any change will have to go through Legco as it will require a change to the finance Bill and will depend on gaining the necessary support.
We also asked that a paper clarifying just what is and isn’t permitted under our present licensing laws be brought forward. This arises from the festivities over the Liberation week whereby if there was a bring your own type session children could be in attendance but if spirits were being sold them children could not attend functions. Also there seems to be a discrepancy between camp and Stanley in these matters.
Finally as a result of the comments made by the Coroner in a recent case it was queried when we would see a paper covering the designation of roads in camp and also their resumption. It would appear as if the question of their designation should arise when the relevant piece of the Road Traffic Ordinance is written and goes out for public consultation.
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