Resources
Reports, infosheets and other links that might be useful to women thinking of standing for public office are listed here:
Infosheets and useful links
A Guide to the Annual Parish Election Process
Campaigning in a Parish Election
What do Douzeniers and Constables do?
Being a School Committee member
List of parish responsibilities
Supplier directory
We’re constantly gathering names of businesses that provide useful
services to people campaigning for election – website designers, printers,
photographers…
If you’d like your company to be included, let us know.
Election infosheets
We’ve developed these infosheets for Election 2020 to help demystify the election process in Guernsey, in the hope of encouraging more people to stand for Deputy. We’ll be updating them for Election 2025 shortly.
Stage One – understanding the issues
Stage Two – the election process
Stage Three – planning your campaign materials
Supplier directory
We’re constantly gathering names of businesses that provide useful services to people campaigning for Deputy – website designers, printers, photographers…
If you’d like your company to be included, let us know.
Information for Prospective Candidates in the 2020 General Election.
In Depth – interviews with 2016-20 Deputies by Richard Harding.
General Election 2020 – Mar 2019 policy letter proposing 17th June 2020
General Election 2020 – Nov 2019 policy letter giving details of the election process
General Election 2020 – July 2020 policy letter revising date of election to 7th October 2020
Governance review of the Committee for Home Affairs. Full text. Executive summary.
Governance review of the Committee for Health and Social Care. Full text.
Governance review of the Policy and Resources Committee. Full text.
Governance review of the Committee for Education, Sport and Culture. Full text.
Scrutiny Management Committee’s public hearings and reviews. Archive.
Channel Islands Women at Work Index 2019 – PwC – Guernsey would benefit from a 6% boost to GDP by matching female employment rates to Sweden’s.
Channel Islands Women at Work Index 2021 – PwC.
A Women’s History of Guernsey, 1850s-1950s by Rose-Marie Crossan. Highly recommended.
Gender Audit of the States Assembly in Jersey – Diversity Forum Report 2019.
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27 Mar 2023: Diane brings new dimension to ESC
6 Mar 2023: Iconic women have their say
3 Feb 2023: Hannah to lead tourism strategy
23 Jan 2023: Farewell, Jacinda Ardern
4 Jan 2023: Complaints are critical to Hayley
5 Dec 2022: Celebrating balanced parishes
14 Nov 2022: Jane brings her skills to E&I
27 Oct 2022: New Overseas Aid Commissioners
Go to gov.gg/StatesMeetings to find out which policies and laws the Deputies will be debating at each meeting. Includes links to listen back to recordings of previous meetings. Meetings start on the date shown and may continue until the end of the week, depending on the length of the agenda.
For States Meeting dates further in the future, click here.
If you want to watch a States meeting from the Public Gallery of the Royal Court, here’s what you need to know:
1. States meetings take place every three weeks or so – dates for the next few months are here. Meetings start at 9.30am and run to 12.30pm, then after lunch from 2.30pm to 5.30pm. Visitors are allowed to enter and leave the public gallery at any point while the States is in session, you don’t have to be there from the beginning.
2. To find the gallery, go to the new entrance to the Royal Court building in St James Street (revolving door). Tell Security you’ve come to watch the States meeting and ask them to direct you. Or watch the gov.gg ‘How to access the States chamber’ video.
3. As you go through the wooden door to enter the gallery, you’ll see some stairs to your left. At the top of those stairs turn right and stand at the top of the aisle.
4. If the States is in session you will see the Presiding Officer (usually the Bailiff or the Deputy Bailiff) across the chamber in front of you. It is polite to acknowledge the Presiding Officer by pausing briefly and bowing your head slightly. But don’t worry if you forget, he or she won’t mind.
5. Take a seat wherever you feel comfortable.
6. No clapping or other noise, even if the Deputies clap. No communication with States members while the States is in session, even by email or text. No eating or drinking in the gallery, although an occasional discreet sip from a water bottle is permitted to keep hydrated. If you need a proper drink and haven’t brought anything with you, there is a water cooler in one of the corridors near the chamber (ask someone to show you) and another cooler in the main reception area of the Royal Court. The Court is trying to reduce waste so if you can use your own cup, so much the better.
9. Women’s toilets are down the curved staircase, turn right at the bottom.
10. For a copy of the agenda for the debate, called the Order Paper, go to gov.gg/statesmeetings. To help visitors understand terms like ‘relevé’ and ‘sursis’, gov.gg has produced a ‘Glossary of Guernsey parliamentary terms’.
12. There are no rules about what to wear – it’s important that members of the public can drop in when they are passing. But if you are coming specifically to watch, you may want to wear something smart (but comfortable).
13. To listen on the radio instead, tune in to 1116AM. Or to listen online, google ‘BBC Guernsey States live’. Or go to gov.gg/statesmeetings and listen live (or a recording later) via Microsoft Teams.
If it would help to have some company on your first visit to the Gallery, we’re always happy to show new people the ropes. Join our Politics WhatsApp group and we’ll keep you posted as to when we are next going to be watching a States meeting. Just send your mobile number to hello@womeninpubliclife.gg and ask to be added to the group.
Who can vote
It doesn’t matter if you were born somewhere other than Guernsey or the UK, anyone can register to vote if they have been living here for the last TWO YEARS, whatever their nationality.
Alternatively, you can register to vote if you’ve lived here for five years in total (with breaks in between).
You must be aged 16 or over.
Getting registered
Before you can start voting, you have to be officially added to the list of voters (known as the ‘electoral roll’). You need to do this well in advance of the election you want to vote in.
To be added to the list of voters (electoral roll), just complete THIS REGISTRATION FORM and email it to elections@gov.gg.
Or print it out and post it to: Electoral Roll Office, Sir Charles Frossard House, La Charroterie, St Peter Port, GY1 1FH.
More information
You can register to vote when you are 15 years old but you won’t actually be able to vote until you are 16.
If you think you might already be on the list of voters (electoral roll), email elections@gov.gg to check. Note that Guernsey created a new list in 2020, so if you registered before then, you’ll need to do it again.
The registration form uses the term ‘ordinarily resident’. That just means that mean that you live in Guernsey in the ordinary course of your day to day life.
The next general election won’t be until June 2025 but in the meantime, you can vote in your local parish elections (St Peter Port, Castel etc).
More information at gov.gg/elections.
