12 December 2018
Executive Council met today with two items on the open agenda.
For the first item, members were asked to endorse a report from the Liberated African Advisory Committee outlining options and recommendations for the reburial of the Excavated Liberated African Remains. The Advisory Committee was established by Executive Council in October 2017, with the primary objective to explore options to provide a peaceful and final resting place for the disturbed Liberated African Remains which are currently being housed in the former Pipe Store. The main recommendations in the report are that the reinterment should take place within Rupert’s Valley, that a memorial should be created at the site and that an interpretation centre should be developed in Rupert’s. Other recommendations are that in the interim period prior to reburial, the remains will continue to be housed in the Pipe Store and that every effort should be made to encourage people to engage with the display of the materials returned from the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool. Members were happy to endorse the report and the recommendations and took the opportunity to thank the Advisory Committee for their excellent work. The Committee will now go on to explore funding options to take the recommendations forward.
Members were then asked to advise whether the Medical, Dentistry and Pharmacy (Amendment) Bill should be printed, published and presented as Government Business at the next formal meeting of the Legislative Council. It was noted that the Public Health Committee had reviewed the current provision and as a result recommended that amendments were necessary as follows:
Practitioner qualifications are reviewed internally within the Health Directorate by the Director of Health or Delegated Officers before recommendation to the Governor;
Evidence of Good Standing from a previous Registration Authority is obtained before practitioners are recommended for registration by the Governor; and
That the fines and sanctions for non-registration as a practitioner before undertaking such role on the island are reviewed upwards.
The Bill will amend the Medical Practitioners Ordinance 1910, the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance 1937 and the Dentists Ordinance 1955.
Members debated the draft Bill and raised concerns in relation to the level of qualifications, the internal processes and the on-island practice and control. Members were reassured that these concerns will be addressed in the supporting policies which would sit behind the Bill. On that basis Members were content to approve the Bill as Government Business for the next formal meeting of Legislative Council.
ExCo
11 December 2018