Deputy Chris Le Tissier has submitted written questions to each States committee asking for details of how much it spent on travel and accommodation for political members and staff since the elections in October 2020.
The questions may yet extract information about a few globe-trotting politicians, but the first committee to respond had somewhat less adventurous travels to reveal, and may end up having among the lowest expenditure.
ESS vice-president Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez went to Alderney in March 2022, with two members of staff, to meet the States of Alderney and the island’s Chamber of Commerce in an afternoon, before a public meeting in the evening on secondary pensions.
The trio flew to the island and stayed at La Ville Hotel, formerly the Chez Andre, in Victoria Street. The travel and accommodation cost for each was £274 – a total of £822 for the trip.
In his reply to the question, ESS president Peter Roffey pointed out that his vice-president had flown to the northern isle on ‘standard class’.
‘No other member of the Committee travelled off-island on committee business during the period October 2020 to March 2024,’ said Deputy Roffey.
Deputy Le Tissier has also asked each committee if transparency over travel costs should be published in a ‘reasonable’ time frame after trips are made.
ESS said that it supported measures to increase transparency and accountability but also that there would be resource implications to prepare such reports.
‘If trips are only undertaken by States members for essential government business, and costs are well controlled, there should be no need for such reporting,’ said Deputy Roffey.
‘If there is a suggestion that travel is regularly taking place which is either unnecessary, or excessively expensive, then perhaps such a requirement could be justified.
‘The answers to these questions by all States committees should reveal whether there is any evidence of such excesses.
‘Certainly, ESS would strongly refute that it has any record of unnecessary or excessively expensive travel.’