Home Affairs chief criticises UK-based director

The president of Guernsey's Home Affairs Committee has criticised an arrangement in which the director of population management is currently based in the UK.

Deputy Marc Leadbeater said the situation "wasn't a good look".

It follows criticism of the arrangement by the President of the Scrutiny Management Committee and former Deputy Chief Minister Mark Helyar.

States chief executive Boley Smillie said these kind of arrangements occurred only in "exceptional" circumstances and he has committed to a review of the States' work-from-home policy before the end of the year.

Under current laws, the director of population management is a statutory official employed by the Committee for Home Affairs and is the senior States official responsible for overseeing Guernsey's population, residency and employment permit system.

The system has come in for criticism in recent weeks, after businesses and politicians said the processing of applications was taking too long.

Leadbeater said the Population Management Office was working hard to reduce the backlog and that industry concerns would feed into work on the system.

Chairman of the Confederation of Guernsey Industry (CGI) Garin Dart was also critical of the arrangement on social media and said: "The States has to get its house in-order before any discussion can be made about GST."

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