News

MLA Roger Edwards is currently in St Vincent and the Grenadines attending the Caribbean Regional Seminar on the Implementation of the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism: Goals and Expected Accomplishments Seminar.  He will be attending the Committee of 24, Special Committee on the Situation with regards to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, with MLA Dick Sawle, 20- 21 June.

Both MLAs will be visiting Washington for briefings/meetings with the State Senate and will also travel to Ottawa Canada for a day to meet with Parliamentarians 22^nd and 23^rd June.

MLA Edwards will then travel back home via Santiago in Chile to arrive on 25 June.

MLA Sawle will travel on to the UK and the Small Island Games on the Isle of Wight to represent the Assembly and to support the Falklands teams.   After a short holiday he will attend the Stanley Services board meeting and the Annual Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference in London from 21-28 July. Returning home on 3rd August

 Encl.  Statement by MLA Edwards in St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Office of the Legislative Assembly

Gilbert House

Members of the Legislative Assembly announce with regret, with immediate effect His Excellency the Governor has accepted the resignation from the Legislative Assembly by Mr Glenn Ross.  The letter of acceptance from His Excellency the Governor to Mr Ross is shown below for information.

“Thank you for your letter of 26 April offering your resignation from the Legislative Assembly.  I accept it with great reluctance.

 I fully understand the reasons you set out.  I know that in recent weeks your work at the Power Station has been particularly time-consuming.  You are doing an excellent job there, and I accept that this will be a priority for you, particularly as winter approaches. 

 I would like to put on record my appreciation for the commitment you have shown to the role of MLA, both in general and in your farming and agriculture portfolio.  I have particularly valued your advice since your election to ExCo at the end of last year.  I will greatly miss your input.

 I wish you all the very best for the future, and hope that circumstances might allow you once again to stand for election to the Legislative Assembly.” 

 Office of the Legislative Assembly

Gilbert House

Executive Council has agreed that, on a trial basis during 2011, Government clocks will not go back this winter.   This means that the Falkland Islands will remain on “summer time” throughout the whole of 2011. 

Calendars currently indicate that clocks will go back one hour at 2am on 17 April 2011.  Those indications should be ignored.

The advantages that will be gained from the trial include more time to contact UK and Europe during the working day, and lighter evenings during the winter. 

 Practical arrangements are being made to ensure this information is widely disseminated here and abroad, and further notices will be published in due course to help remind the public that they do not need to put their clocks back this year.

Keith Padgett

Acting Chief Executive

From 6 – 12 March The Honourable Emma Edwards will attend the 60th Westminster Seminar on Parliamentary Practice and Procedure. This is hosted by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK Branch.

First held in 1952, the seminar is an intensive period of study for newly elected MPs and early-career clerks from across the Commonwealth.

Following this, from 14-16 March 2011 CPA UK will hold the first of its Westminster Series, an intensive workshop on the Committee System.  MLA Edwards will also attend this event.

Westminster Seminar

The event involves up to 65 delegates, and explores  the idea of the Westminster-model parliament, its history, variations across the world, current methods of working, practical challenges and potential improvements.

Through discussions with UK Members, senior Westminster officials, and amongst participants, the Westminster Seminar aims to expose its delegates to a wide-range of ideas and practice, and to enable all who take part to work more effectively in their own legislatures upon returning home.

The Westminster Seminar is one of CPA UK’s most popular annual events, and we hope these refinements to the event’s format will make it more appealing and accessible to those wishing to participate.

The Westminster Series: The Committee System

From 14-16 March, the intensive Committee System Workshop will enable parliamentarians to strengthen their expertise in areas specific to their interests.

Ideal for government ministers, committee chairs, and committee members and clerks, the workshop will include interactive sessions with Westminster committee experts and will provide the opportunity to view committees in action.

Topics will include: public bills, select committees, conducting an effective enquiry, and modernisation and reform.

Honourable Roger Edwards MLA is due to attend the annual EU-OCTs Forum in New Caledonia from 28th February to 4th March. This annual event is fully sponsored by the EU and alternates between being hosted in Brussels one year and an Overseas Territory the next. The five day event allows the 25 Overseas Territories associated with the EU to meet with officials from the European Commission along with the European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs. The four Member States (UK, The Netherlands, Denmark and France) that have OCTs are also represented at the Forum and feed into discussions on a broad range of issues such as trade, environment, development funding and political concerns.

 This year the majority of the forum will focus on the key issue of future EU-OCT relations. The current EU Decision that governs the relationship between the Territories and the EU is due to expire in 2013. Over the past 12 months much work has gone into consulting on how this relationship should be structured in the future, and much of this consultation shall be reviewed and finalised at the Forum. There is also to be a morning dedicated to the issue of environmental conservation in OCTs and the development of renewable energy. The Falkland Islands are due to present on these issues.

 The Falkland Islands Government Representative, Sukey Cameron and Senior Economist, Michael Poole, will support the Hon. Roger Edwards MLA at the Forum. This is an excellent opportunity for FIG to present their views to the EU and for all territories to meet together and discuss common issues.

UN C24 Chairman invited to Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands Government is satisfied by and grateful for the levels of defence on the Islands, which Her Majesty’s Government has assured us are adequate to maintain an effective deterrent.

There are no direct defence cuts relating to the Falkland Islands. Members of the Legislative Assembly are content with the reassurances that they have been given by Her Majesty’s Government that the Strategic Defence Spending Review does not in any way change the UK’s ability to maintain the deterrent in the Islands. 

For more information please contact Toby Doman:

 Tel: +44 (0)20 3047 2212

Email: toby.doman@edelman.com

Photographs and more Falkland Islands information is available at www.falklands.gov.fk.

Mr Nigel Haywood CVO was sworn in as the 34^th Governor of the Falkland Islands on Saturday 16 October 2010. The ceremony took place in the Legislative Assembly Chamber in front of Members of the Legislative Assembly, Officials and invited guests.

 The ceremony included the reading of Her Majesty’s Commission appointing Mr Haywood to the role of Governor and the taking of the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of due execution of Office.  The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly welcomed His Excellency and presented him with his ceremonial sword (which will be returned on his departure).

His Excellency then gave a speech.

Then followed a Honour guard parade which His Excellency inspected.  The parade came to a fitting climax with a 17 gun salute.

His Excellency and Mrs Haywood then hosted an open house reception at Government House.

(Photo: Mr Mal Prior)

“On behalf of the people of the Falkland Islands, we would like to send a message of heartfelt thanks and support for the fantastic work that you have carried out in Chile by the rescue of the 33 miners in the Atacama. The whole world, including ourselves with a large Falkland population of Chilean people, has been watching in hope and praying for the success of this mission.”

For the 23^rd year running, FIG exhibited at the Labour and Conservative Party Conferences in Manchester and Birmingham.

MLAs the Hon Jan Cheek and the Hon Roger Edwards, along with the London Representative, Sukey Cameron MBE, manned the stand, which attracted many MPs and delegates at both conferences.  Interest was especially expressed in oil exploration and concerns over the Strategic Defence Review, and any implications it may have for the defence of the Islands.

The Conservative Conference in particular presented the opportunity for MLAs to meet a large number of new MPs, as well as speaking to Government Ministers and members of the Cabinet.

Photo Credits

Sukey Cameron with the new Leader of the Labour Party the Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP (© Gus Campbell Photography)

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Rt Hon William Hague MP, on the FIG stand at the Conservative Party Conference (© Peter Stevens Photography 2010)