GUERNSEY has passed just half as many laws as Jersey in the last six years. Between February 2001 and May, 110 pieces of legislation from Guernsey received Royal Assent, compared with 222 from Jersey.

‘What’s required, we do,’ said Chief Minister Mike Torode.

‘We don’t go around, despite what some might say, legislating for the sake of legislating.’

There had been quite a lot in the previous 12 months, he said, but there had been a lot more in the early part of the decade.

He had been concerned with the time it was taking for legislation to pass through the Privy Council.

In his first meeting with then Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, Lord Falconer, he raised the issue.

‘It’s shifting, not as quickly as we would have liked, but shifting,’ said Deputy Torode.

‘We’re reasonably content it’s coming through in a fairly timely manner at the moment.’

Jersey’s Chief Minister Frank Walker denied that his island was over-regulated.

‘I think the number of laws reflects the fundamental changes that have taken place in Jersey’s government,’ said Senator Walker.

‘We have frequently gone out to ask the public and representative organisations where we might reduce red tape and when they have come back we have had a very limited response which was primarily aimed at regulation of undertakings or planning laws and we have made considerable changes to both.’

The amount of legislation passed came out after a written question in the House of Commons by Conservative MP for Romford Andrew Rosindell.

He is a member of the Channel Islands All-Party Parliamentary Group.