THE Policy Council has attempted to explain its silence over the bungled suspension of a Health employee that cost the island up to £500,000.

The Health and Social Services Department professional has apparently been on full pay for two years after a clash with a boss.

States deputy chief executive Nigel Lewis (pictured) would not say whether it had direct involvement in this case. But he did confirm that the Policy Council acted as employer under certain circumstances.

‘But where people get confused is when they assume that if there is a problem the Policy Council will have been dealing with it from the start and should somehow be intimate with all the details of a particular case,’ he said.

That was a totally unrealistic expectation in practice because the States employed more than 5,000 people across a wide range of activities.

The Policy Council provided a framework under which departments dealt with their employees, he said.

It gave advice and guidance on best practice and could provide expertise that departments lacked.

‘In extreme circumstances it intervenes.’

He recalled a number of cases for which the Policy Council had taken ultimate responsibility and had made decisions in respect of employees rather than the department, but would not provide details.

Neither would he say to what extent, if any, the Policy Council had direct involvement in the case in question.

That was not because he wanted to be obstructive, he said, but because the council had a clear policy of not discussing individual employee and employer relationships.