Memorandum submitted by the Landsbanki
Guernsey Depositors Action Group (The Association)
1. How, in practice, the UK Government represents
the Crown Dependencies internationally; 2. The role of the Ministry
of Justice in managing the United Kingdom's relationship with
the Crown Dependencies including inter-departmental liaison and
coordination; and,
3. What, if any, changes are required, in terms
of either policy or practice in order to improve the Ministry
of Justice's management of the relationship between the United
Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies?
THE ASSOCIATION
The Landsbanki Guernsey Depositors Action group
is an association of depositors in the Guernsey branch of Icesave-Landsbanki.
Guernsey depositors are almost 100% British
Citizens with equal numbers of Channel Island residents and British
expatriates. (Both groups are effectively excluded by deliberate
interpretation of policy developed between the banks and the Government
from maintaining bank accounts on the UK mainland)
THE ROLE
OF THE
MINISTRY
The Ministry of Justice is the successor Department
to the Home Office, Lord Chancellor's Department, and Department
of Constitutional Affairs in managing the relationship of the
Crown Dependencies with the Crown, and in fulfilling the Crown's
obligations towards its Dependencies.
The Crown Dependencies, consisting of the four
Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, have no international personality.
Although the modern constitutional position has evolved over time,
from different historical routes (and, according to the Kilbrandon
Report in the 1970s the relationship has many unclarities) it
is submitted that the most accurate statement of the position
is that contained
within Protocol 3 to the Treaty of Rome, in
that they are considered as "territories for which the Member
State is responsible internationally".
British Citizens of Channel Islands, particularly
by virtue of the historic constitutional position have the right
to look to the Crown not only to represent, but to protect. This
solemn obligation which the Crown has by virtue of its position
as successor to the Duchy of Normandy pre-dates the Conquest and
has evolved into the Crown's (and in this case, its Ministers)
role in matters of Defence and Foreign Affairs.
CONFLICTS OF
INTEREST
Conflicts of interest have arisen in the past,
whereby Her Majesty's Foreign Service has been presented with
the difficult job of representing abroad, the interests of the
Channel Islands, which have on occasion diverged. This same difficulty
appears to have confronted the Ministry of Justice when the events
of October 2008 occurred.
In particular, the UK government's apparent
position, in the Winding-Up of Landsbanki Islands h.f. ("the
parent company"), seems to have placed it (the Government)
as a preferential creditor over and above the rights of individual
British citizens in Guernsey (most of them pensioners whose life
savings their deposit represents). This seems to present the Ministry
of Justice in an irreconcilable conflict of interest.
INTERDEPARTMENTAL
LIAISON AND
CO-ORDINATION
It is a clear perception among the members of
the Association that the Ministry failed signally to coordinate
properly with the Insular Authorities, the Treasury, and the Foreign
Office, and as a result the interests of Guernsey savers have
been prejudiced. Put simply, this has resulted in savers in the
Crown Dependencies being the only retail savers anywhere not to
have been protected by their Governmental authorities and this
has resulted in a deep level of dissatisfaction among many Guernsey
people with the Ministry as well as with the Insular Authorities
at Guernsey.
REQUIRED CHANGES
What is required is a thorough examination of
those areas identified by the Kilbrandon Report in the 1970s as
unclear, and a clear statement of the responsibilities of the
Crown (and its Ministers) in respect of the interests of its citizens
in the Crown Dependencies within the British Islands.
October 2009
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