Here’s the full text of the 2025 Budget speech by Joelle Ladislaus:

At the start of this budget speech I want to reflect on something which I said to St Anne’s upper primary school children back in May when they came to learn more about Parliament and its work- What does democracy mean? What does it stand for? Democracy comes from the words “demos”, which means “people” in Greek and “kratos”, rule or power. The word democracy literally translates to “rule by the people”. The people, what we do is, or should be, all about the people and we mustn’t lose sight or forget that we’re only here because of the people. During a budget session, and even during an ordinary session of this House, there’s a real danger that we end up seeing only numbers and statistics without taking a moment to consider that behind every one of those numbers written down in these books is a person, and the impact of what each person in this book does in their respective roles is felt by other people, not abstract numbers, but people. All with responsibilities, with hopes and aspirations, with human frailties and human strengths. 

This speech won’t be the most technical, it won’t be the most mathematically accomplished, it won’t be the most complex, and certainly not one of the longest. But, I do hope that it comes across as sincere. It’s unfortunate that the title of “politician’ has become muddied and tarnished and, in too many people’s minds, synonymous with insincerity, opaqueness and a general lack of integrity. I’d like to think that’s not what I represent. The Govt. often like to portray me as the “collaborative” one on this side of the House, the “reasonable”, “constructive” one. I hope I can be all those things if it means that positive changes happen for those who need them the most. The Honourable Minister for Health, in particular, knows that I won’t hesitate to write to her to flag issues that are brought to my attention if I think that it will serve to make a difference. It doesn’t however mean that I will sit back and leave issues that affect our community unchecked. Collaborative doesn’t translate to pushover. For as long as I am afforded the privilege of sitting on this side of the House, I will challenge Govt policy when it needs to be challenged. It is our collective responbility as the opposition to hold Govt to account and I promise to continue to discharge that responsibility to the best of my ability and with one thing at the forefront of my mind- el pueblo. 

Before considering what I was going to say today, I looked back on my 2024 Budget speech and what struck me almost immediately was how so many of the issues that I flagged last year remain unaddressed issues this year, and even more worryingly, how some have worsened over the past 12 months and come to a head. Last year I said to the Hon. Minister for Health:

“Regarding the Minister’s intended take over as Chair of the GHA Board, there is cause to be cynical about this proposal. You see, Madam Speaker, the real issue doesn’t lie in the fact that the Minister is actually to sit on that Board, although it remains to be seen whether they have learnt from mistakes of the recent past and they avoid micromanagement..”

In April last year, in a press release regarding the announcement of the consultation for the health and care restructure, the Govt were keen to emphasise “that the GHA will remain completely clinically independent and politicians will NOT interfere with any clinical decisions. This will be set out in an Accountability Agreement which the Government will publish before September 2024 – the date at which the changes announced will be implemented. The Government’s involvement, as Chair of the GHA Board, will be limited to the setting of policy and budgetary oversight.”

We could ask the long-suffering GHA staff whether there has been ministerial interference, whether the GHA has remained completely clinically independent, whether the Minister’s involvement has been limited to the setting of policy and budgetary oversight, unfortunately the most recent of a string of demonstrations by GHA employees has only emphasised what the public already know, that those healthcare workers are afraid to speak out because there are repercussions when they do. The key concerns which were the subject of the demonstration on 18th June arose precisely because there has been and there is political overreach and any cynicism which we on this side expressed about the GHA restructure has proven to be justified. We’re often accused by Govt of negativity towards their policies just for the sake of it but, to quote a Guardian article of 12 years ago- “once again, cynicism proves its worth as one of the best defences against spin and manipulation.” 

Simply put, healthcare workers don’t just decide overnight to demonstrate against the Govt en masse, this was the culmination of months of being sidelined, undervalued and having valid concerns ignored or swept under the carpet because they didn’t align with the shiny façade of perfection which the Govt attempts to portray on social media and in their incessant and somewhat “empalagoso”, as well as, no doubt, expensive to the public purse, pr show, GHA workers expressed loudly and clearly, in spite of what the Minister said to me in this House last week, that we can’t believe everything we read on a placard, that they have concerns about:

Political interference in the health and care sector

The need to restore independent HR for health and care

Meaningful dialogue on unresolved claims

The fact that many staff members are afraid to speak out; they feel intimidated

Staff shortages 

Reliance and misuse of supply staff and agency personnel

Appointment of individuals without adherence to proper recruitment and selection procedures

It felt like deja vu because whenever we have put questions around these subjects to the Hon Ministers in this House, we have been met with derision, with denials, with refusals to address the real issues, attempts at deflection and little clarity. When I come to Parliament, whether the Govt believe it or not, my aim isn’t political point scoring, as you can see from the issues raised at the 18th June demonstration, all of which I, and my Hon. colleague Mrs Sanchez, have asked questions on during Parliamentary sessions over the past year. These are real concerns, held by real people which are impacting, not just GHA staff, but also service users, and the pervading feeling of late is, to quote the demonstrators on 18th June, that “enough is enough”. The messages on the placards summed up neatly many of the systemic issues which are rife within the GHA, and since democracy demands that freedom of speech is protected, and too many are “too scared to speak out”, I will endeavour to give them a voice here today. In order to do so, I’ve decided to refer to the messages on some of those placards to emphasise what the major issues within the GHA are, which there has been no meaningful engagement on, and which affect not only our GHA staff, but also service users:

“If you are scared to speak out, you are not in a safe system”

In any organisation within a democracy, whistleblowing is of the essence and central to ensuring improvements and progression, more so within a healthcare setting. If you silence the people who are in the trenches at the front line every single day, you stifle progression, improvements, innovation, and patients are put at risk because ignoring warnings from those who have the best oversight means that harmful, and unsatisfactory conditions, both for patients and for staff go unchecked. Not to mention, it completely discourages future reporting. Take the recent formal complaint made by CCU staff in February of this year; that complaint included issues which affect patient safety and even when an investigation upheld the complaint and recommendations were made, they were disregarded and the GHA refused to engage in any meaningful discussions on the subject. What is the point of a dispute resolution procedure when there is no recourse? People have been left feeling that the process consists of nothing more than a tick box exercise, which concludes with a collection of empty platitudes and can result in feared repercussions. 

In July 2020, 300 GHA Unionised workers walked out, in part due to claims that the clinical governance system which had been established was being used to target staff, and that it was often for non-clinical reasons. Fast forward to today and staff are feeling much the same and raising complaints around the same themes.  

To be afraid to speak out is demoralising, it’s frustrating and it’s dangerous both for the staff afraid of communicating issues and for service users who suffer the impact of those issues. The culture of fear and intimidation within the GHA, and the civil service at large, must stop. This government is straying dangerously far from what democracy means. Fear is not respect. 

“In the GHA some are more equal than others”

“Some are more equal than others” one of the most famous lines from George Orwell’s book Animal Farm where at the start the animals institute the idea that all animals are equal, but that soon changes as the pigs, who were in charge in that book, become more controlling and undemocratic and the rule evolves to “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. It’s profoundly poignant that GHA staff demonstrating just a few weeks ago referenced part of that quote on a placard, and there is plenty of reason for them to because there have been many examples of some being more equal than others. 

One such recent example which comes to mind is the strike back in late November/early December by the GHA’s Industrial Grades employees whose modest claims were sidelined for 10 months before Government had no choice but to react when they walked out. Yet, when we requested breakdowns in May as to the total number of GHA employees earning more than 20% of their basic salary in overtime, there were a number earning more than 100% of their basic salary in overtime; and that was deemed to be justifiable by the Hon. Minister for Health. 

Another example that comes to mind is the perception by many GHA employees that there is no fair and transparent disciplinary process, that the reality is that bullying claims and even complaints as to impropriety are swept under the rug, but that depends on who you are and who you know.

It must be exhausting to work in an environment without proper safeguards in place, especially when speaking up could create even more problems than you started off with and so there were placards that read:

“We are walking out because our exhaustion is not just physical, it is emotional and moral”

“We are walking out because you cannot fix health care by breaking those who provide it” 

“Care doesn’t clock out- Neither do we”

“Exhausted, overlooked, still caring”

“We carry the system but no one carries us”

And then when things become completely desperate, and those employees dare to stand up together to bring formal claims, such as the Allied Health Professionals did a year ago when they called for parity with their UK counterparts; or like the Industrial Grades employees did towards the end of 2023, they are faced with:

“Unresolved claims and delays”

The AHPs waited a year before demonstrating because there had been no significant engagement from Govt, the Industrial Grades employees, amongst the lowest earners within the GHA, facing increasing difficulties in the face of the ever rising cost of living, waited 10 months without any significant engagement before they walked out and demonstrated. I’ve said it before in this House, and I’ll continue to say it, if claims are left to fester they become much harder to resolve than they would be through meaningful engagement early in the process. As John C Maxwell, who is best known for his books on leadership, said: “If you’re proactive you focus on preparing. If you’re reactive, you end up focusing on repairing.”

Let’s focus then on the placards which really need to be taken into consideration to avoid the need for this government, and successive ones, to have to repair more broken systems. 

“Contracts that protect not exploit”

In the May session of Parliament I asked how many GHA staff members were currently (at that point in time) employed out of the bank staff cohort or via an agency and had been working continuously and uninterrupted for a period of over three months. The response was 53 bank staff members. Of those 53, 12 had worked for the GHA uninterrupted for a period of over 5 years, and of those 16, 5 had worked for the GHA uninterrupted for a period of 10 or more years. When I asked the Hon. Minister in supplementaries why the GHA employs so many members of staff out of the bank cohort for such lengthy periods of time and suggested that those individuals should surely have been offered permanent contracts, the response was that, from the information available the Hon. Minister could not make the determination that I was suggesting. This was followed by a lengthy explanation which concluded with the assertion that “you can work continuously and uninterrupted for a period of three months within any period from 2012. You may have worked from June 2015 to September 2015 in an uninterrupted and continuous manner but that does not necessarily mean that you have been in employment since.” Either the question was completely misunderstood or expertly avoided.

Within the GHA’s mental health facilities, there were 2 bank support staff who had completed 24 or more months of continuous service to the GHA. When I asked why they had not been offered permanent contracts, within a service might I add, which is chronically understaffed, the Hon. Minister’s response was that “they are covering gaps in the service due to issues such as sickness and vacancies.” The same question was understood and answered and the Hon Minister went further in agreeing “in principle that all bank staff should be tidied up and if they are needed in a permanent post that should be tidied up…” By the Minister’s own admission, these 2 individuals were covering gaps in the service which were due not only to sickness but also unfilled vacancies. It is perhaps easier to save some money in the short-term though by not offering permanent contracts which bestow employees with more rights and entitlements, but that can’t be the answer for the service in the long-term, it certainly isn’t the answer for those employees who live with the uncertainty of a zero hour contract hanging over their heads for years on end, it can’t be answer for service users who have to suffer gaps in their continuity of care because there is a revolving door of temporary staff rather than an expansion in the cohort with the creation and filling of, very obviously, much needed vacancies. And with that, I echo the sentiment of the placard which read:

“Every unfilled vacancy is a risk- not a budget win”

As of January 2025, there were 46 vacancies within nursing at the GHA and UNITE emphasised workforce issues, which were impacting patient care and safety. The Government’s response to the assertion that nursing staffing levels were “dangerously low” was to accuse the union, and by proxy, the staff who had made the claims, of being “factually incorrect” and “alarmist”, and to point out that the 46 vacancies were offset by 38 supernumerary nurses and 22 locum staff. Just another way to disguise the fact that there were such a high number of unfilled vacancies, and there still are. To begin with, the term “supernumerary staff” often refers to students or those in transitional roles who don’t form part of the regular staff complement for a particular department or shift. The usual idea and ideal is to allow these individuals to learn on the job, or, for example, to transition back into a position after a prolonged absence. Locums, are temporary professionals who will substitute for regular staff. The issue with this approach is of course that the 38 supernumerary staff form/formed part of the University of Gibraltar’s student nurse cohort who were/are being trained up to take up the vacancies and therefore needed constant supervision, so that just gave regular staff more responsibilities; how were they therefore to offset 38 of the 46 vacancies? Furthermore, locums are not permanent, which will often result in no continuity of care for service users who are suddenly left to commence from 0 when a person they’ve built up a rapport with and trust moves on. Yes, locums are commonly relied on in a healthcare setting, but it is disingenuous to say that they are there to offset the huge gap in the GHA complement. 

It's important to highlight at this point that these are ongoing issues and concerns, not just within nursing, but across the board. I simply use nursing as an example.

Then, we come to the issue of this Government’s blatant overreliance on bank and agency staff to make up complement numbers. 

Overreliance on bank and agency staff results in those employees being treated as if they were employed permanently, on a full-time basis, but without any of the benefits that a permanent contract bestows, with all the uncertainties that a zero hour contract brings to day-to-day life, yes zero hour contracts which remain rife in the GHA. This approach is also placing so much pressure on the bank reserve numbers that when bank staff are necessary to be used for the purpose for which such a workforce is, which is to cover absences, the numbers are so depleted it becomes nigh and impossible to find cover. Some have been employed from bank for over 10 years. If an overreliance on bank and agency staff doesn’t demonstrate staff shortages, then it demonstrates a misplaced attempt to save money. The current state of the GHA suggests that it’s evidence of both staff shortages and poor attempts to save money. 

 And through all this, patients are being put at risk, because there have been nights where wards have been so severely understaffed that staff have had to pull a rabbit out of a hat to keep things at least functioning, even if not at the recommended safety levels. Which brings me to:

“We can’t do more with less- we’re not magicians” (staff are certainly expected to be)

The Minister is, we have heard on various occasions, making every effort to make cuts which will translate to savings for the taxpayer. The thing is, cutting essentials is leading to far bigger issues than the savings which this govt say they are attempting to achieve. These “savings” mean that there are not enough nurses, I’ll say it over and over and it will still be the case, regardless of what the numbers in this book (which is full of estimates) shows. These numbers may be set out in a manner under which the Minister can justify saying that we are at full complement, but there’s no doubt that “full complement” doesn’t mean enough. Full complement according to who? Put very simply, you can’t have a full complement when you are opening more depts, and expanding local services in a bid to repatriate services back home, when you’re not recruiting the staff to cover those expansions; what this Govt is doing is stretching their exhausted, burnt out and demoralised staff and squeezing the lifeblood from them. 

And so, one of the last of the demonstration placards which I’ll be referring to today read:

“We are walking out because policy should follow evidence-not agendas”

When I query decisions made by the Govt., the response is often the same- that the approach is determined by listening to what the experts suggest. So, why then did GHA staff demonstrate en masse a couple of weeks ago? It has to be because there are a few whose agendas trump (no pun intended) the evidence that is being flagged repeatedly by front line workers. Those few agendas are overriding the data; the real-world experiences of the staff on the ground, and what the public is saying. 

Transparency doesn’t cost anything, valuing someone doesn’t cost anything, listening to opinions, even if they don’t fit the picture of perfection that this Govt tries to portray, doesn’t cost anything. Money isn’t the only thing that this workforce is after; they’re after something that money can’t buy- respect. 

Efforts to address all those ongoing problems that I’ve just referred to would start with a strong human resources structure, but the truth of the matter is that last year’s restructure appears to have had the opposite effect. 

The Director of Workforce was appointed Director of GHA HR, but only in an acting capacity, as we found out recently- this hasn’t worked in the past, as pointed out by UNITE, and it obviously isn’t working now. One person can’t be everywhere he is required, especially when the GHA, which is over 1,000 strong, presents such unique challenges. How is Mr Richardson supposed to be present at regular meetings with line managers at the GHA, available to deal with the ever-growing issues of the newly-created Gibraltar Health and Care Authority, alongside existing responsibilities across the entirety of the civil service? The system which was in place where the GHA had its own separate head of HR may well be the better option. 

The restructure has unfortunately meant more bureaucracy, which means that vacancies can’t be filled quickly enough and can take months, to advertise, which results in inevitable gaps in the service, especially when services are constantly been expanded. This leaves wards and other departments short on staff and those staffing issues are compounded by overreliance on bank staff which then results in the unavailability of cover when it’s most needed. 

And through all this, we see a continued refusal by the Government to publish the outcome of the employee surveys for 2024/2025; what have they got to hide? Other departments and agencies, like the RGP, are happy to publish such results, why not the GHA? The public is entitled to know what is going on within their healthcare service and how it can impact them. 

Last year, this is what I said to round off my speech when I was speaking as to the health portfolio: “In a nutshell, what the GHA needs is a Minister that doesn’t micromanage and independent and professional managers who are not stifled by ministerial intervention. It remains to be seen whether the most recent approach will finally be successful; given this Govt’s history in this area, I have serious misgivings.”

It's not political point scoring to say that it turns out that my misgivings were justified, it’s factual. We only have to consider the domino effect of industrial action that we’ve been seeing in past months with the various GHA walk outs, strikes and demonstrations when there is serious discontent and there are ongoing issues, which ultimately impact the service user. 

And so, at this juncture, I want to analyse some of the topics raised this year around services and the responses, or lack thereof from Government. If I were to cover all the topics which I’ve asked questions on we would be here for many hours yet, so I’ll stick to those subjects which evidence systemic issues. Let’s start with 

Mental Health

Last year, the laying of the Mental Health Board Report 2023 was accompanied with much fanfare- a motion brought by the Honourable Health Minister,  accompanied by a lengthy address to and debate in Parliament, but then again, last year we were only 8 months into the life of this Parliament. The public was prepared to be more forgiving of a new minister who spoke with renewed vigour, who promised a new perspective of the age old issues surrounding the delivery of a mental health service. The Minister, to her credit, accepted last year that there was still much to do. 

Fast forward to this year and the 2024 report received none of the attention of its predecessor. There was no motion, no emotive address, no debate, nothing; and that silence spoke much louder than words. It was almost an afterthought; ready well before it was tabled, it sat waiting for the right time in the PR show, and it was no accident that it followed, the emphatic announcement of the new site for the Mental Health hub. A facility that many are anxiously awaiting and which has already seen precipitated changes as to its intended location mere months after the original announcement. Let’s hope once it opens that the project will not prove as directionless, because many eagerly anticipated improvements are dependent on the success of that hub. 

As of May of this year, the average waiting times at the GHA for overall psychology services was 21 weeks, over 5 months to access psychology services. The average waiting times for someone to see a primary care counsellor was nine weeks; the average waiting times to see a secondary care psychologist was 32 weeks, so 8 months; and, the average waiting times for a clinical psychologist under the Gibraltar Young Minds service was 27 weeks, so almost 7 months. I do appreciate that the waiting times seem to have decreased, and I also appreciate that individuals are not left without being seen to in the meantime; but when we talk about the need for some mental health support we are talking about some of the most vulnerable moments in a person’s life, and it is crucial that people are not left with uncertainty clouding their treatment journey. 

And, on the subject of uncertainty, I have said it in the past and I will continue to repeat this, continuity of care is absolutely central to any patient’s experience, but when it comes to mental health patients, it is even more sacred. The value of forging a relationship of trust with a mental health professional when a person is feeling at their most exposed, should not be understated and I have had plenty of concerns raised with me about service users who have suddenly, and without warning, found that their mental health professional has changed, and so the relationship begins again from zero and hinders progress. 

All however is not negative and all is not lost, because what I have witnessed this past year is the incredible work of local charities and organisations like GibSams, Childline, Clubhouse Gibraltar, the Mindspace Project and the Gibraltar Mental Welfare Society. Through their tireless efforts and campaigns, the stigma surrounding mental health is beginning to dissipate. 

We await the commencement of the new model of care which the mental health hub promises to herald in. I sincerely, for the good of the mental health of our population, hope it is a huge success, but in order to even start on the right footing, there is much to be done to resolve the basics. 

Back to basics (communication/digital records)

Back to basics, that’s the direction that healthcare policies should be taking. It’s rare that a day goes by when I don’t hear of an issue at the GHA to do with communication. Whether it’s service users still being unable to get an appointment after long stints of time on the phone; whether it’s unavailability or loss of or gaps in patient records; difficulties communicating information between departments and tertiary service providers, or even simply speaking with a member of staff on the phone, problems are flagged.

Back in January of this year on a Viewpoint programme, the Minister for Health referred to a task force which had been set up to improve the availability of daily appointments at the PCC. The statistics on the many dash boards which the Hon. Minister likes to refer to, and which are made to sound like the control panel of the Death Star, may demonstrate improvements, but the reality remains that calling the GHA appointment line in the morning and obtaining an appointment is still mission impossible. You may be lucky and you get one within minutes, that happens for the rare few who’ve cracked the intricacies of pressing the call button on their mobile phone at just the precise moment; but if you call just seconds out of that window, (and I know that the Hon CM is a Star Wars fan)-“may the force be with you”. And then maybe, after the automated voice announces, almost proudly, that you’re caller number 77 in the queue and you spend 25 minutes to get to number 1, there’s a deathly silence that fills one with dread because the line has disconnected and you’re about to start the process all over again, and that is from personal experience. 

Then we have the multiple calls that go unanswered at the GHA, and not for one second am I suggesting that’s due to staff inadequacies, there are many reasons why this could be the case, the point is that it happens daily to many service users. Recently, I had the great privilege of calling the Children’s PCC 12 times over the course of a day to follow up on a form that was promised would be emailed almost 4 weeks earlier. In the end I had to give up. What happens to the elderly person who is unable to make telephone contact and has nobody to do it for them? What happens to the vulnerable patient who can’t make their way down to the PCC or the hospital with ease? Access to healthcare services is impeded. 

Another of the most significant issues I constantly hear about is the lack of interdepartmental communication. It’s often the case that patients are referred by a GP to a secondary service, or that others will need to be seen under multiple specialisms, so communication between departments is key to patient safety, to continuity of care, to efficient use of limited resources, to teamwork and to faster decision making. If that isn’t correct, things begin to crumble. At the heart of many of the complaints which I get from people about the GHA seems to be this chronic lack of communication. When the left doesn’t know what the right is doing there can be serious and wide-reaching consequences.

The impact of that communication disruption is compounded by incomplete medical records and historic shortcomings in record-keeping.

Cervical Smears

In April of this year, the Government, in an attempt to gloss over systemic shortcomings, announced improvements to the cervical screening programme, which were presented to the public as part of a policy change designed to improve healthcare standards, along with reassurances that those changes should not be a cause for concern. Although such improvements are of course welcome, the stark reality is that they had been urgently necessary for years, the GSD opposition was flagging issues in 2021, and the figure quoted by the Government of 12,000 needing to be recalled, demonstrated that, and the fact that the GHA did not have sight of how many women need recalling. Not just a lack of screening then, but also a lack of appropriate record-keeping, resources and forward-planning, the consequences of which are now added pressures to already stretched staff  numbers and burnt-out staff. As was also on the placards at the recent GHA demonstration, “we cannot run a service on good will.” 

Repatriation of Services

On the subject of running a service on good will, the topic of repatriation of services also needs to be mentioned. In light of the very obvious staffing issues, which are persistently highlighted by GHA staff, and ignored by Government, we constantly hear of services being repatriated. Like I said last year, the intention is laudable, of course the ideal scenario is for patients to receive treatment and care at home and not have to travel elsewhere with the stress and upheaval that brings, but at what cost are some services being brought home? Surely, the expansion of services goes hand in hand with the expansion of the complement, and that simply hasn’t been the case for many of the novel services being offered. The cath lab, the urology clinic, these new services run on existing staff complements which are transferred from other areas and wards as and when needed. The consequences are depleted staff numbers in some areas, which presents risks to patient safety. 

Justice and Uniformed Services

GFRS

Back in May of this year, I attended the first Fire Safety Summit, which saw addresses from leading fire safety experts, both local and from abroad. Amongst them was Gibraltar’s own Chief Fire Officer, Mr Colin Ramirez, whose message really struck me as he tried to dispel the myth that all our firefighters do is “play volleyball”. That is the perception that our GFRS feel too many unfortunately seem to have of them because, “you only see the GFRS when you need it”. So, I decided that today I would open the “justice’ part of my speech by thanking them for their unwavering service and for being there whenever we need them. It doesn’t go unnoticed. 

I go further, this year, I extend my gratitude also from a personal perspective and arising from a personal experience. Just shy of 2 weeks ahead of that Fire Safety Summit, the GFRS’ red watch responded, quickly and efficiently, to a vehicle fire in the lower part of my estate’s garage. It doesn’t bear thinking how much worse things could’ve been if those firefighters hadn’t been on hand so fast. They had things under control in a heartbeat, and all with supreme cool, professionalism and even smiles, which put neighbours, especially the children, at ease. 

As a result of the rapidly changing landscape of our little Gibraltar, the GFRS are being faced with new, ever-growing challenges, not least because of how built up things are getting, the close proximity of buildings; and the fact that, as I learnt from Mr Ramirez’s speech, Gibraltar now has more than 50 high rise buildings. We are also surrounded by water and have a nature reserve covered in foliage, all of which, together, raise unique challenges that don’t present in other, bigger parts of the world, and as such it is a safety-critical obligation to preserve suitable manning levels. Under the “Manning Level Maintenance” sub-head of this year’s budget book the estimate for 2024/2025 was £400,000, but the forecast outturn for 2024/2025 is more than double at £875,000, and this year’s estimate has been placed at £800,000, that seems to me to be a head under which continued operational readiness is ensured through the use of overtime. Whereas it is appreciated that uniformed services will of course have high levels of overtime, it does raise the question, does the GFRS need further expansion of their establishment, perhaps even more than the 3 by which it is to grow this year? 84 firefighters service a growing community of around 38,000, we have grown by about 6,000 people between 2012 and 2022, and the rapidly changing landscape of Gibraltar throws in more complex challenges. 

To meet those ever-evolving challenges, the GFRS are also in need of the new fire station, which was promised to them, and to our community by this Government, as far back as 2011, and every successive election thereafter. On 13th February 2023, the Hon. Mr Bossino asked the then Hon. Minister Sacramento for an estimated timeframe within which the fire station would be completed. The response from the Deputy Chief Minister at the time was that, once the permits were in place, they would expect this to happen within 12-18 months. I do appreciate that the answer was caveated with only being a rough estimate and that the Hon. Minister wouldn’t want to be held to it, but we have to bear in mind that this has now been a commitment of this Government for 14 years. 

In his budget address last year, the Hon. Minister for Civil Contingencies, said “we are working on the exciting project of a new home for the GFRS. A presentation of the concept design has been made to GFRS staff, and this has been well received by all.” That was a year ago now, and with the passing of the years, it is ever more important that our fire service is rehomed within a purpose-built station, suitable for modern-day needs. Whereas the current station at Alameda Grand Parade is a beautiful, historic building, it has served our GFRS now for 88 years and it is time for this Government to deliver on their 14 year old promise which, amongst the many other improvements that it would provide, would also finally make appropriate provision of facilities to accommodate female fire fighters. 

Borders and Coastguard

Turning now to the Borders and Coastguard Agency. I have recently raised concerns relating to equipment maintenance, facilities and resources, all of which need to be addressed as a matter of urgency, more so in the context of the Treaty, in respect of which their role and responsibilities stands to change. In light of this, BCA staff require assurances as to staffing, their role moving forward and deployment. We look forward to further clarity on these issues, which will no doubt be on the minds of BCA officers and staff. 

Prison Service 

One of the pillars of our justice system is, or should be, rehabilitation and the sooner and earlier in life that young offenders, in particular, are provided support to break cycles of offending, the more likely it is that they will be effectively rehabilitated. There are still too many young people falling through the cracks and we are seeing an increase in complaints of anti-social behaviour and a revolving door of reoffending. In this day and age, Gibraltar is not unique in this, but our size and comparative safety to other bigger jurisdictions does mean that we should be ambitious enough to want to succeed in building a system of restorative justice which produces positive results for the majority. 

Every time I’ve asked the question about the possibility of a young offenders institution, specialised to deal with young offenders, the Government has taken the stance that, in a jurisdiction as small as Gibraltar, the cost and scale of a dedicated juvenile detention facility cannot be justified, and that seems to be the end of it. I appreciate the reasons behind that policy, particularly having heard the Honourable Minister for Justice say yesterday that nom minors have been admitted to the prison in the past year, but surely that can’t be the end of the matter, because that doesn’t mean that there has been no youth offending. What about restorative justice programmes? What about residential placement options? What about intensive therapeutic programmes? 

There really doesn’t seem to be much emphasis on the therapeutic side of rehabilitation, particularly for adult offenders, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that providing access to therapies reduces the risk of recidivism; creates a more positive and safer prison culture; supports mental health and wellbeing and prepares inmates for reintroduction into society. But, when I asked the Honourable Minister last week when a pilot study into prison pathways and access to the prison population had concluded and what the recommendations were the reply was:

“I am informed that the six-week pilot scheme commenced in or around April 2024 and ended in June 2024. 

The study provided insight into the clinical needs of the prison population and made the following findings and recommendations- 

Prisoners should feel heard and be listened to and have an opportunity to `vent' to improve wellbeing / reduction in distress whilst in prison. It was concluded that this does not need to be delivered by qualified psychological practitioners. 

Psychological input to reduce risk of re-offending and support rehabilitation, (e.g. targeting criminogenic needs / risk factors though offender behaviour programmes). It was noted that the Care Agency have designed and delivered interventions to meet these needs on a group and individual basis. It was further noted that it would be unusual for healthcare providers to deliver such interventions. 

No issues were identified regarding interventions in relation to substance misuse. 

The possibility of the GHA providing a clinic for evidenced-based psychological therapies for mental health conditions, (if and when required), would be explored. 

Support staff to understand challenging behaviours in custody from a psychological perspective and make recommendations to enhance standard practice.”

Yet, when reading through the latest Mental Health Board Gibraltar Annual Inspection Report dated 14th october-18th November 2024, it’s very apparent that, after four long years, “the situation of a lack of counsellor support remains unresolved”… and the Mental Health Board goes on: “an impasse remains, as the solutions proposed following the pilot do not, in the view of the prison authorities, address the core issue: the prison’s need for a dedicated counsellor to work with inmates approximately six hours per week to provide a consistent, supportive presence for inmates, offering them a safe environment to discuss and process their issues…. and the report continues… “The Care Agency’s input is valuable, but it remains specialised and time-limited, meaning it does not address the broader psychological and emotional needs of the general prison population.”

The solution seems simple, appointment of a counsellor to the prison, just like the previous arrangements which were in place prior to the retirement of the former counsellor, and which are, in fact, the preference of the prison authorities. But then, in spite of the song and dance that we receive from the Government about how well resourced the area of mental health is, the issue, unsurprisingly, appears to be a lack of resources. This should never have become such a significant issue; forward planning was key and would have made all the difference, but we see it time and time again, there is next to no forward planning or foresight with this Government. 

RGP

I take this opportunity to wish the RGP’s new Commissioner, Commissioner Richards, a warm welcome and all the very best in his endeavours to keep Gibraltar safe. 

The Minister for Justice’s role is to ensure that the RGP have the resources necessary to operate effectively. In recent years our police force have suffered from chronic underfunding and significant depletions to their complement and this in the midst of the McGrail Inquiry, which stretched already limited resources to breaking point; and it has been noticeable. For a long time, there has been a notable absence of our iconic and beloved Bobbies on the beat, decreases in night patrols at sea, with other agencies having to pick up that slack wherever necessary; an under resourced Digital Forensics Unit; and the abolishment of entire units, such as the Drug Squad. Our community has felt the increases in anti-social behaviour keenly. 

When I’ve asked questions of the Minister for Justice this past year, a common response has been that decisions taken by the RGP command team are operational and, nothing to do with Government. And I agree with the concept that the Government should never interfere with the proper functioning of a police force, I’m relieved to see that the Hon. Minister so vehemently takes that stance. What I don’t accept is the Government hiding behind that notion so as to avoid the real reasons why the RGP has found itself facing the untold difficulties of recent years. An example of this is the disbanding of the Drug Squad. Back in October 2024 the Minister confirmed that this was the case, but cited that it was an operational decision. Tellingly, the annual police report for 2023/2024 states that although there has been a 21% reduction in the number of drug offences recorded in 2023/2024, compared with 2022/2023, it is not likely to be because of a decrease in drug use, but “more as a result of a reduction in the resources available to tackle the issue”. The reduction in resources is due to the need to redeploy assets to meet other policing priorities.” It’s quite blatant from that quote that the RGP have been faced with having to choose some areas of policing over others because of budgetary and resourcing constraints. I hope that with the passing out of recent police recruits and the addition of 9 civilian staff to the Control Room we may see the return of the Drug Squad; our geographic position, and past successes of that squad in curbing high level drug smuggling certainly point to a need for it’s funding and re-establishment. 

This week we’ve heard Honourable Ministers delving into the past again, and lecturing about how this side of the House doesn’t understand what a manifesto commitment is. I wonder whether a manifesto to this Government is simply a collection of pretty pictures and words they think the public wants to hear, but which they have no intention to act upon. I would be remiss if I failed to touch upon the (sore) subject of a significant broken manifesto commitment by this Government when speaking about the RGP. That is, the Government’s decision not to proceed with delivering a much-needed new Police Station, which they had set out in their 2023 manifesto would be situated at the Rooke. Instead, our RGP will have to make do with the far less satisfactory refurbishment of their existing premises, and there is no beginning in sight for that. As the Honourable the Leader of the Opposition pointed out in his speech on Monday, under Head 102, at p166 of the Estimates book, there is a nominal sum of £1,000 under the subhead entitled “RGP Headquarters”, it is the same story under the subhead entitled “GFRS Relocation”  

With all that said, I have to admit that I have seen an increase in the numbers of police officers patrolling our streets in past weeks, and I welcome that sight, as I’m sure many do. But, I say that with some reservation, because I hope that the measures put in place are not a case of too little too late following years of Government neglect of the RGP.  

Closing

Over the course of the past 12 months, since June 2024, I have asked 390 questions in this House, since the beginning of this year, I’ve asked 215 questions, that’s 26% of the opposition questions, and a majority of those have related to the health portfolio; I’ll leave it to the public to do the maths as to what that indicates about the current state of the GHA, which the Honourable Minister for Health flippantly said last week when under pressure, “hasn’t fallen to bits”. Contrary to what I am often accused of with increasing regularity, the points which I make in this House are not meant to scaremonger, they are not meant to politicise matters nor to score political points. Surprising as it may be to Ministers, these are all issues that have been raised with me and which affect our community. They are made, every single time, with the best interests of our Gibraltar in mind. 

I can sincerely say that I love this role, because I am in the privileged position of giving a voice to those who don’t have one, and therefore I encourage more people to put themselves forward to play a part in political life. I especially encourage girls and women, who we need more of in order to reach the coveted 50% in this House which reflects a balanced and equitable representation. 

For all that I’ve said in this speech about and to the Hon. Minister for Health, I don’t think it goes unnoticed that we can maintain a level of respect and civility towards each other, for the most part, and that we collaborate as and when we can. The female perspective and approach are simply different from that of our male counterparts. 

With that said, I have to make the observation that Parliament is not family friendly and although this Government made a manifesto commitment to “empower women in politics and support parents in parliament”, with the promise of the implementation of a “comprehensive system that includes dedicated childcare facilities and remote working options within Parliament”, we are already almost 21 months into the life of this Parliament and there is no indication that there will be any changes, and so the Hon. the Chief Minister will continue to use timetabling of Parliamentary sessions as another means of control. The only impact of that approach is damaging the proper functioning of democracy, because it makes the political system inaccessible to parents, especially to women who remain the main caregivers. You can paint the façade of a building, and it does look beautiful, and I’m delighted to say for the first time in history, the Parliament building is finally accessible to wheelchair users and those with mobility difficulties, but the system within it also needs addressing so that accessibility extends as far as possible. The govt should be the example as an employer not the entity acting like a power mad goliath. 

This year, the tone of my budget speech may be more pessimistic and more full of cynicism than my speech last year. I don’t like that approach. I continue to communicate with Honourable Ministers, especially with the Minister for Health, but it’s my responsibility to raise issues. We are now almost 2 years into the life of this parliament and the cracks are showing far more glaringly. The honeymoon period is over, it’s time for this Government to stop the pr, shiny photoshoot fanfare and have the humility to stop, listen to the frontliners and the public and act. Public trust in the system has been eroded because the decisions being taken don’t seem to be rational, transparent or grounded in fact. They are reactive, based on opaque reasoning and the agendas of a few. The facts cannot fit the policy, the policy must fit the facts. The “New Dawn” is rapidly moving towards the darkness of night, but as the actor Harry Dean Stanton said- “Always end the day with a positive thought. No matter how hard things were, tomorrow’s a fresh opportunity to make it better”, and better we will make it.