Motion to limit length of Budget debate speeches

Moves are being made to limit the length of speeches in the States' Budget debate.

There are 30 amendments lodged for the debate which is due to take place from 3 November, which include increasing social housing spending and free bus travel.

The Policy and Resources Committee has laid out a motion to limit speeches to either seven and a half minutes for opening speeches and five minutes for debates, or nine minutes for opening speeches and six minutes for debates.

Speeches were limited during the States' tax debate at the start of October, a change several politicians later credited with helping the assembly complete the debate within six days.

The Forward Guernsey Party pushed for limiting speeches during the tax debate.

Party member deputy Rhona Humphreys said she was "pleased" to see Policy and Resources' motion to limit them again.

"It worked very efficiently in the tax debate," she said.

"We got to an answer at the end of the tax debate, so I can understand why Policy and Resources have done the same thing again.

"I think we all know now we can prepare our speeches to the right length.

"So hopefully, 30 amendments, we've got four days, we should be able to get through it and have proper debate about the Budget, which, of course, comes after the debate on all the amendments."

Humphreys said she does not think limiting speeches will become the standard and she does not think they should.

"I think there is actually some really good value in having some time to rehearse arguments and understand things properly," she said.

"I do think it's beholden on us to make a decision about budget and it was beholden on us to make a decision about tax and these methods help."

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