We are reducing the cost of public services. And we want to hear from you.
This survey is now closed and initial insights into the results can be found here: Cost reduction public survey - initial insights - States of Guernsey (gov.gg)
Thank you for taking part in this survey looking for your suggestions for how to you would like to see the cost of providing public services reduced. Before completing the survey please read the following which provides information on why this exercise is being carried out and how your suggestions will help us to identify potential solutions.
Why we need to identify ways of reducing costs?
The shape of the Bailiwick's population is changing. With more people living longer and having fewer children, demand for public services, particularly health services, is rising rapidly. This is one of the biggest challenges we face and other jurisdictions are also taking extraordinary steps to counter similar trends.
The funding shortfall in public finances is currently forecast to rise to £100m per year by 2040.
The States is working on a number of measures to address this and to put public finances back on a sustainable footing, to ensure future generations are not left with unaffordable costs and no reserves.
More information on the pressures on public finances and the ways in which the States is currently working to address them can be found at Public finances | States Of Guernsey (ourfuture.gg)
Part of this involves reducing costs. The Reducing the Cost of Public Services Sub-Committee has been formed to identify recurring cost reductions of at least £10m - £16m per annum within five years. It will bring recommendations to the States Assembly in 2024.
What is the Reducing the Cost of Public Services Sub-Committee?
In setting up the Sub-Committee, the States Assembly said:
"...working with Principal Committees, the States' Trading Supervisory Board and wider States Members, and after effective engagement with the community, to identify and review essential community services and to consider whether structural change, cessation, outsourcing and/or commissioning of those services could deliver significant savings having regard to:
the relevance of universal offers in the provision of services;
value for money and the opportunities for potential efficiencies in service delivery;
the operating models for the States' trading assets;
and to incorporate these into a medium-term plan for delivering overall cost reductions of at least £10m-£16m over five years to be considered by the States by the end of 2024."
The Sub-Committee is chaired by Deputy Dave Mahoney, member of the Policy & Resources Committee. Its other members are Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, Deputy Simon Vermeulen, Deputy Carl Meerveld and Mr Dave Beausire.
Hasn't this been done before?
The States has undergone large cost reduction exercises in recent years. One of the most substantial was the Financial Transformation Programme, carried out between 2009 and 2014. This delivered annual savings of more than £28m in the States baseline expenditure.
Upon its completion a report was presented to the States which you may find it helpful to review before providing your suggestions. It is available as a 
download on this page [896kb].
And this is where you come in...
The Sub-Committee wants your suggestions for how we can reduce costs, because we all contribute towards public services, we all use them, and we will all be affected if we cannot close the deficit.
Please complete this online survey, where you can provide us with up to three suggestions for how you believe public spending can be reduced. Please keep each suggestion to approximately 500 words (submissions are restricted to 4,000 characters each).
Each suggestion should come under one of the following categories:
- Generating new or increased income
- Restructure of services, including outsourcing and commissioning
- Reducing, stopping or restricting access to services such as through means testing
You can complete the survey anonymously, but where possible, we would like you to leave your name and contact details in case we want to follow up with you on your suggestion. Anyone who is resident in Guernsey, Alderney or Herm can complete the survey.
We hope to receive a wide range of suggestions, even though we know it will not be possible to take them all forward for various reasons. It may be there is no alternative way of providing the service, it may be because there are regulatory or statutory requirements we have to meet, or it may simply be that they are unlikely to deliver the cost reductions we need. But we want as many ideas as possible because we believe there will be some which are worth pursuing to achieve the sorts of savings we are aiming for.
You are strongly advised to look through the form and prepare your answers BEFORE STARTING THE ONLINE FORM.
The survey is available online at www.gov.gg/yourviews from 9am on Monday 26 June and will be open for three weeks, closing on Friday 14 July. People can also submit their suggestions by post by writing to:
Reducing the Cost of Public Services Sub-Committee
Sir Charles Frossard House
La Charroterie
St Peter Port
GY1 1FH
Fair processing notice
Any personal data provided by yourself through the course of completing this survey will be processed in accordance with the Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2017. For further information on how your personal data will be processed, see the Fair Processing Notice [252kb].
