Policy Brief
Re-instating senators
Summary
- Deputy Elaine Millar has introduced a proposition to reinstate the position of senator to come into effect for the 2026 election.
- The position of senator was introduced in 1948. Over time the number of senators has been reduced from 12 to eight, the term from nine years to six years and elections have moved from being held before deputy elections to being held at the same time.
- The Clothier Commission, which reported in 2000, could see no significant difference between the role of senator and the role of deputy and accordingly recommended the abolition of senators with an additional 12 deputies. This recommendation was not implemented by the Assembly.
- In the 2013 referendum 19.5% of those who voted, in a very low turnout, supported senators remaining in the Assembly.
- For the 2022 election senators were abolished, the number of deputies increased from 29 to 37 and the districts for deputies were revised so as to ensure that each vote for deputy counted equally.
- There is no reliable survey of public opinion on whether senators should be reinstated.
- One of the arguments for senators is that people would be able to vote for a number of members of the Assembly. In the UK, voters have just one vote for their MP. Guernsey is an outlier with a single constituency, electors having 38 votes.
- There is a valid argument for an island-wide mandate, particularly in the absence of party politics.
- Introducing major constitutional changes less than a year before an election is contrary to accepted international standards.
Introduction
Deputy Elaine Millar has introduced a proposition to reinstate the position of senator to come into effect for the 2026 election. This Brief describes the history of the role of senator and discusses points relevant to the issue. It is designed to inform the public discussion on the subject.
The proposition
The exact wording of the proposition is -
- that the office of Senator, elected on an Island-wide basis, should sit alongside the offices of Connétable and Deputy in the States Assembly, and should be re-instated by removing one Deputy from each of the nine electoral constituencies and substituting nine Senators in their place; and
- to request the Privileges and Procedures Committee to bring forward the necessary legislative amendments to give effect to this proposition in time for the General Election in 2026.
Deputy Millar’s proposition in full is appended. In summary, she argues that the proposal would –
- Maintain its existing level of equity of votes for deputies and that everyone would have a vote for connétable and nine votes for senators.
- Promote fairness. In the 2022 election it was possible to top the poll with fewer than 1,000 votes in some districts while in others at least 1,000 votes were required to come in the last elected position. The office of senator deals with such issues, given that all Islanders, regardless of whether they live in an urban or country parish, are voting for the same candidates in the same election.
- The current Assembly has lacked the perspective and overview that comes from having members who are elected on behalf of the whole Island. The lack of Island-wide debate on policy issues in 2022 was noted as a drawback of that election, given that the focus was inevitably narrowed towards the district and Parish level.
History of the position of Senator
The expression “States of Jersey” is commonly used in the Island. The expression dates back to 1497, and literally meant the three separate groups – the constables and the rectors of the 12 parishes and 12 jurats, that is professional jurists. These three groups historically comprised the parliament and the government. In 1857, 14 deputies were added to the Assembly to counterbalance the mismatch of population and voting power between town and country. In practice, jurats were the senior politicians, elected for life by Island-wide vote, and were the presidents of committees and sat in the Royal Court. After the Occupation, there was a clear desire for change, particularly political reform, which duly occurred. The most significant move was in 1946 when the rectors and the jurats were removed from the Assembly. In place of 12 jurats, provision was made for 12 senators, elected on an Island-wide basis for nine year terms, four retiring every three years. The term was subsequently reduced to six years.
In 1999 the States Assembly commissioned a review body “to undertake a review of all aspects of the Machinery of Government in Jersey”. This had wide-ranging terms of reference including the composition of the States Assembly. The review body, chaired by Sir Cecil Clothier, produced a comprehensive report in December 2000. Its key conclusions relevant to the composition of the Assembly were –
- It could see no significant difference between the role of senator and the role of deputy and accordingly recommended the abolition of senators with an additional 12 deputies.
- It could see no role in the Assembly of constable that was different from that of deputy and accordingly it recommended that constables should no longer be ex-officio members of the States Assembly but should be free to stand for election as deputies.
- It recommended an Assembly of between 42 and 44 deputies, which would produce “a much more even distribution of seats per elector” than was achieved by the system then in operation.
The report did not find favour in the Assembly and none of the recommendations on the constitution of the Assembly were implemented.
In 2009, the States Assembly agreed to hold elections for all seats on a single day and to cut the number of senators from 12 to 8, increasing the number of deputies to 29. These changes came into effect in the election in 2014.
In April 2013 a referendum was held on the composition of the States Assembly. There were three options on the ballot paper. The result, with a very low turnout of just 26%, was -
Option (a) 42 deputies in six large constituencies – 39.6%
Option (b) 12 constables and 30 deputies in six large constituencies - 40.9%
Option (c) 12 constables, 8 senators and 29 deputies – 19.5%
The referendum provided for the votes for the lowest supported option to be reallocated to second preferences. This produced a vote for Option (b) – 55% to 45% for option (a). Notwithstanding the preference of those who voted to remove senators from the Assembly, the Assembly decided to retain the status quo, that is option (c), which was supported by just 19.5% of voters.
In the 2014 and 2018 elections, the composition of the Assembly was therefore unchanged with 49 members comprising 8 senators, 12 constables and 29 deputies. For the 2022 election the position of senator was abolished, the number of deputies was increased to 37 and new constituencies for deputies were introduced to ensure that votes counted equally.
Public opinion
There is no reliable data on the views of the public the question of whether there should be senators. However, there are several relevant indicators.
The first is whether turnout in elections was higher for senators than for deputies. Until 2014 senatorial elections were held before elections for deputies. The following table compares turnout in elections for deputies and senators in three parishes: St Helier, by far the largest, St Mary, the smallest, and St Clement, representative of the three “suburban” parishes.
Turnout in Jersey elections, selected parishes, 1990-2014
When the elections were on different days, turnout in the elections for senators was significantly higher than for deputies - by 2.4 percentage points in St Mary, 2.1 percentage points in St Helier and 8.8 percentage points in St Clement.
The second indication is the referendum on the composition of the States Assembly held in April 2013, noted in the previous section. The option to maintain the status quo, that is 12 constables, 8 senators and 29 deputies, received the lowest proportion of votes – 19.5%, but in the event the Assembly did not vote for any changes so the status quo remained.
The third indication is that when asked in the Jersey Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (JOLS) why they didn’t vote in the 2022 election, 3% said loss of the senator role. However, this is not an indication of whether there should be senators, merely an indication that the absence of senators did not cause many people not to vote.
The final indication is a survey conducted by the Government of Jersey in January 2024. In response to the question “What would you say is the most important issue facing Jersey today?”, faith in government came third with 12%; the issue of the composition of the Assembly did not score 1%.
Issue 1 – number of candidates an elector can vote for
One of the arguments for senators is that people can vote for a number of members of the Assembly. With the previous system people could vote eight senators, one constable and between one and five deputies. With the new system, they can elect fewer members of the Assembly, just one constable and between three and five deputies.
It is useful to note the position in other jurisdictions –
- In Guernsey, the system was changed for the most recent election in 2020 such that there was a single constituency with electors being able to cast votes for 38 candidates. Every elector had the same ballot paper with 110 people contesting the 38 seats. (The politician who comfortably topped the poll, Gavin St Pierre, in a Jersey Evening Post article on 25 January 2025, said: “Guernsey’s Scrutiny Management Committee, in a review of the first election using the system, politely described (in an understated way) the election process as “a low information choice” for voters. It produces a “democracy” that is more Athenian than representative in its nature, akin to a random fruit machine resulting in 38 individuals being dragged off the street one day and dropped into government the next. This is almost certainly the reason that it is truly unique worldwide without any long line of visiting jurisdictions keen to understand how it works.”)
- In UK parliamentary elections, people have just one vote for their local MP.
- In local elections in England typically there are multi-member constituencies, most with between two and four members
- At Scottish Parliament elections, every voter has two votes: one for their constituency, where they vote for an individual candidate, and one for their region where they choose a party or independent candidate.
- For the Welsh Assembly people have five votes, one for their local area and four for their region.
- In the Isle of Man electors vote for two members in each of 12 constituencies.
It is the case that some people in Jersey would prefer to have more votes and they would spend time considering the merits of the various candidates. However, for many other people the more complex the voting system and the more that they are asked to do the less likely they are to vote. In most parliaments people are accustomed to voting for a single class of member but until the last election Jersey people were voting for three separate classes of member and now, they are voting for two. Jersey has the lowest electoral turn out in the world. It is possible that this complexity is one of the factors discouraging people from voting.
The only evidence on why people do not vote is the 2022 JOLS. The following table shows the position.
Issue 2- the island wide mandate
Deputy Millar's proposition argued that –
The current Assembly has lacked the perspective and overview that comes from having members who are elected on behalf of the whole Island. The lack of Island-wide debate on policy issues in 2022 was noted as a drawback of that election, given that the focus was inevitably narrowed towards the district and Parish level.
This is a valid argument, particularly as the issues that members of the States Assembly deal with are invariably Island-wide rather than related to a specific parish. An Island-wide senatorial election would by definition focus on Island-wide issues rather than parochial issues with candidates being expected to explain how they would deal with issues such as cost of living, the health service and education rather than traffic issues or proposals for developments in specific parishes. It is also the case that senators would need at least 10,000 votes to be elected whereas a deputy could become Chief Minister with just 700 votes.
In UK general elections people are in effect voting on national issues by party rather than for a local candidate. The relative absence of political parties in Jersey means that in many constituencies people are in effect voting for individuals with no indication of what they would do in government and indeed with no expectation that their vote will in any way determine the government of the island.
When Jersey had senators, it was always the case that the Chief Minister was chosen from among the senators and that other senators would hold significant positions. Some have argued that with the senatorial system the person with the most votes should automatically be the Chief Minister. In the 2018 election the senator with the third highest number of votes became Chief Minister. And in the Guernsey election the Assembly elected the person with the 5 th highest number of votes as Chief Minister and when he was removed in a vote of no confidence the person with the 9 th highest number of votes was elected to succeed him.
Issue 3 - the views of the public
A previous section of this paper noted that there is no reliable evidence of the views of the Jersey public on whether senators should be reinstated. Currently, the best indication is the referendum which showed support for a States Assembly comprising constables and deputies, although this is now dated and turnout was very low.
An opinion survey would be useful but it would have to be properly designed and not a simplistic “do you favour reinstating senators”. A proper question, similar to that asked in the 2013 referendum, would be along the lines of –
Currently the States Assembly comprises 37 deputies elected in parishes or groups of parishes and the 12 parish constables. Rank the following as your preference for the composition of the assembly –
- 37 deputies and 12 constables
- 28 deputies, 9 senators elected on an island wide basis and 12 constables
- 40 deputies and nine senators
- 49 deputies
Issue 4 - timing
Deputy Millar’s proposition is that senators should be reinstated for the election to be held in 2026. The date of the election will be decided in due course by the States Assembly. It can be on any date during the calendar year. If the proposition is approved then realistically it would be a maximum of 18 months before the election.
The peg for the reforms introduced in the 2022 election was the report on the 2018 of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), Election Observation Mission. The CPA sends observers to elections in Commonwealth countries and subsequently publishes a report. These are useful as the only independent analyses of electoral systems. The report described the electoral system as being “overly complicated and cumbersome” and drew attention to the fact that Jersey’s system did not comply with international standards, particularly in respect of equal suffrage, that is in effect each vote counting equally. This applied both to constables with each parish having one constable and two deputies.
The mission published its report on the 2022 election on 4 October 2022. The principal conclusions of this included –
Noting that the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe had observed that substantive changes to the legal framework less than a year before voting may undermine confidence in the process, it recommended that substantive amendments to the election law should be adopted well in advance of the next election and never less than a year before.
It is for debate whether the reintroduction of senators would be a substantive amendment or rather whether it simply corrected a bad decision to abolish the role of senator.
Appendix – text of the proposition
PROPOSITION
THE STATES are asked to decide whether they are of opinion
- that the office of Senator, elected on an Island-wide basis, should sit alongside the offices of Connétable and Deputy in the States Assembly, and should be re- instated by removing one Deputy from each of the nine electoral constituencies and substituting nine Senators in their place; and
- to request the Privileges and Procedures Committee to bring forward the necessary legislative amendments to give effect to this proposition in time for the General Election in 2026.
DEPUTY M.E. MILLAR OF ST. JOHN, ST. LAWRENCE AND TRINITY
REPORT
Public opinion
When I stood for election in 2022, I made a commitment that I would seek to ensure the return of Senators for the 2026 election. This proposition meets that commitment. The removal of the Senators was a highly unpopular decision across the three parishes I represent, and the issue continues to be raised with me on a regular basis. I am aware that a similar sentiment exists elsewhere in the Island. It therefore remains clear to me that a majority of the electorate wish to see the return of the Island-wide mandate at the next election.
I am aware that this matter has been considered previously by this current Assembly through propositions lodged by Deputy Gorst and Deputy Farnham and then by Deputy Scott . Those propositions were, however, not specific in their requests and sought only to agree the principle that Senators should be re-instated. They did not set out the detail as to how that would be achieved. This proposition, by contrast, sets out a very clear position – if it is adopted, the States Assembly would be constituted of 9 Senators, 28 Deputies and 12 Connétables.
Voter equity
I understand that, in many respects, the current electoral system is more equitable than its predecessor. That was achieved, however, by establishing more equally balanced constituencies for Deputies. In the process, however, the most equitable office that has ever existed in the history of electoral politics in Jersey – the Senator – was thrown away at the same time. As a result, many Islanders now feel less enfranchised and feel that their ability to shape the membership of the States Assembly, and by implication the Government, has been reduced.
It is unnecessary for us to be in this position. It is possible for Islanders to have the best of all worlds. We can retain the current (more equal) electoral districts for Deputies, retain the Connétables and re-instate the Senators. Under this arrangement, the voting system would maintain its existing level of equity. The overwhelming majority of Islanders would still have more votes for Deputy than under the previous system, we would all retain our vote for Connétable , and we would all have nine votes for Senators. This would create a balanced blend of representation at local, district and Island-wide level. It is a system that served Jersey well for 70 years, and it can do so again for many years in the future.
Promoting fairness
It has also not been lost on the public that, in some districts, it was possible to top the poll at the 2022 election with fewer than 1000 votes. In other districts, however, at least 1000 votes were required to come in the last elected position. Again, the office of Senator deals with such issues, given that all Islanders, regardless of whether they live in an urban or country parish, are voting for the same candidates in the same election. Bringing back Senators will enhance the fairness of elections in Jersey and ensure that future Governments are more representative of the voters who have elected them to serve the Island.
An Island wide perspective
I believe that the current Assembly has lacked the perspective and overview that comes from having members who are elected on behalf of the whole Island. We risk becoming too parochial, or district based, and taking our eye off the big strategic issues that we need to address.
Jersey is a globally recognised international finance centre – and our economy depends on the ongoing success of financial services and related industries. These are industries which are operating in an ever more competitive global environment. We also have a number of upcoming infrastructure and public realm projects that need to be developed in an Island-wide context. Equally, a joined-up and more efficient public service will require direction and leadership from those who are able to dedicate themselves full- time to the challenges Jersey will face in the second quarter of this century. I believe we would all benefit from having more members in this Assembly who are able to fully commit their time and minds to these major Island issues.
Similarly, with the apparent growth of party politics in Jersey – or at least the sustained effort by a number of parties to win the trust of the electorate – it is only natural that those parties will relish the opportunity of an Island-wide platform from which to put their policies to the voters. This proposition will give those parties the opportunity of winning up to 9 seats in the States through one election, and the chance to demonstrate that they have broad support from voters across the Island. Indeed, the lack of Island- wide debate on policy issues in 2022 was noted as a drawback of that election, given that the focus was inevitably narrowed towards the district and Parish level.
Timeframe
This is likely to be the last opportunity for Members to re-instate the office of Senator in time for the 2026 General Election. Should this proposition be adopted, it would give the Privileges and Procedures Committee ample time to bring forward the necessary legislative amendments.
Should Members indicate a desire to have time to discuss the matter with their parishioners prior to the debate, including through parish and public meetings, I would be content to move the date of the debate accordingly.
Financial and staffing implications
There are limited financial and staffing implications from this proposition as it is anticipated that the majority of costs could be accommodated within existing PPC and Law Drafting resources, though it is accepted that there may need to be some re-prioritisation of workflows. It is also important to note that this is a re-instatement of the role, therefore the drafting already exists for inclusion of the Senatorial role within the required documents and that this would therefore significantly reduce the administrative time needed.
There would be no overall increase in the membership of the States therefore no financial impact relating directly to salary.
Staffing implications would include the work of the PPC and the LDO, along with the relevant officer time for implementation of any standard administrative changes required, for example nomination forms and other required paperwork. It should also be noted that the reestablishment of the senatorial position may also require the organisation of additional hustings (and election material) for that element of the elections. It would be unlikely that there would be any corresponding reduction elsewhere as the same constituencies would remain in place for election of Deputies. elections.
It is considered that all actions can be completed within existing budgets and accordingly, no additional resources would be required in the event that this proposition is adopted.
Children's Rights Impact Assessment
A Children's Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) has been prepared in relation to this proposition and is available to read on the States Assembly website.