Environmental Audit CommitteeFurther written evidence submitted by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Sustainability in the Overseas Territories Inquiry
1. I am writing to respond to the further written evidence submitted by the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (UKOTCF) to the Environmental Audit Committee. This contains a number of factual errors and serious accusations against the former Governor to the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), Ric Todd. This letter addresses the most serious of our concerns and does not cover every issue that we would dispute in the UKOTCF’s supplementary evidence.
S3–4: Priority of the Environment
2. In S3, the UKOTCF states that former Governor, Ric Todd’s description of his role with regards to the environment in TCI is “somewhat misleading”. The description provided by Ric Todd on the Governor’s role in his letter of 17 April 2013 is correct. The TCI Government has constitutional responsibility for the environment in TCI. The UK’s objective during the period of Interim Administration, as set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 9 December 2010, was to make sufficient changes and reforms to permit the restoration of self government. The Interim Administration faced a huge number of urgent, competing demands across the board when it inherited the chaotic situation left by the previous TCI Government. Its immediate priorities were to restore public finances and procedures; update laws and institutions; build the economy; run effective and transparent Government; and to ensure no future repeat of the mistakes of the past. The focus of the Interim Administration was rightly on preventing the TCI Government going bankrupt and getting TCI on the path for elections to take place. The Interim Administration took very seriously its environmental responsibilities and ensured that developments took full account of environmental concerns.
S5: Conservation Fund
3. In S5, the UKOTCF states that the then Governor “unilaterally cancelled the Conservation Fund.... without consultation with the Governor’s environmental officials or the public” and in an act which was “not widely announced”.
The Conservation Fund was not a fund but a hypothecation of taxes. This hypothecation of taxes was removed as part of the rationalisation of public finances and incorporated into the Consolidated Fund to permit proper and transparent management of taxpayer’s money. The rationalisation of public finances was a major topic of debate and consultation over a long period of time on TCI. The rationalisation was an essential part of bringing public finances into order and starting to pay down the government’s unsustainable level of debt.
S8: Amendment to Regulations on Marine Mammals
4. The UKOTCF claims in S8 that the then Governor amended the previously existing fisheries law to allow the keeping of marine mammals in captivity (thereby enabling the establishment of dolphinaria) as: a “personal initiative”....”without consultation” (in particular of the TCI Department of Environment and Maritime Affairs, DEMA); and “in breach of the Environment Charter”.
5. The TCI Supreme Court dismissed on 17 September 2013 a claim brought by the Turks and Caicos Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TSPCA), the Turks and Caicos Reef Fund, PRIDE Ltd and the Providenciales Chamber of Commerce, for judicial review of the decision to amend the regulations on marine mammals. Judge Ramsay Hale dismissed the allegation that this decision was taken without proper consultation, as well as the claim that the decision should have been left to an elected Government. She ruled that “the ordinance does not give special protection to any marine mammal species, nor was it made for any such purpose”.
6. I attach a copy of the court ruling and news release which provide further information on this issue.
S10–12: Deep Dredging
7. UKOTCF makes the serious allegation at S11 that then Governor Todd “personally asked how to get around the legislation to allow dredging at Leeward” and “raised the possibility of removing some areas from the protected area or changing the protected area law”. UKOTCF had failed to provide any substantiation for this allegation. The application to carry out dredging in the Leeward Channel was considered and refused by the elected TCI Government under the normal planning process.
8. UKOTCF state in S12 that changes to the National Parks Ordinance and a review of protected areas originate from “decisions taken in disregard of competent technical advice during the period of direct rule by HMG”. Both issues were considered by the TCI Government through the normal process. Links to the post Cabinet press releases, where these issues were discussed, can be found below.
Peter Hayes
Director, Overseas Territories
9 October 2013