QU OF NT AT A FE RU

BERMUDA

PREMIER, MINISTERS AND OPPOSITION LEADER

2019 : 23

WHEREAS it is expedient to repeal and re-enact the Premier and Opposition Leader Personal Staffs Act 1983 with amendments to provide, in addition, for personal staffs for Ministers; Be it enacted by The Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and the House of Assembly of Bermuda, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Citation

1 This Act may be cited as the Premier, Ministers and Opposition Leader Personal Staffs Act 2019.

PREMIER, MINISTERS AND OPPOSITION LEADER PERSONAL STAFFS ACT

Interpretation

2 In this Act “personal staff” means a personal staff appointed in accordance with section 3 or 4.

Personal staffs for Premier and Opposition Leader

3 Subject to this Act, the Premier and the Opposition Leader may each, if he so wishes, have a personal staff to assist him and may, by instrument in writing, appoint such number of persons as he deems fit to constitute his personal staff.

4. Personal staffs for Ministers

(1) Subject to this Act, and to the written approval of the Premier, each Minister may, by instrument in writing, appoint a personal staff consisting of one or two persons to assist him.

(2) The persons shall be either—

(a) experts in their professional field; or

(b) political advisers.

(3) Before appointing a person to his personal staff, the Minister shall ensure there will be no conflict of interest between the matters on which the person will be providing advice and assistance and that person’s private or professional concerns.

Terms of appointment

5 An appointment to the personal staff of the Premier, a Minister or the Opposition Leader shall be held by the person appointed on such terms and conditions, which may include terms and conditions relating to discipline and dismissal, as are specified in his instrument of appointment.

Financial provision

6 The total remuneration of whatever kind payable to the personal staff of the Premier, a Minister or the Opposition Leader out of public funds shall not exceed the amount provided for that purpose by the Legislature.

7. Personal staffs not part of public service

(1) The personal staffs shall not form part of the public service of Bermuda, and persons on those staffs shall not be public officers of Bermuda, for any purpose.

(2) Subsection (1) shall not debar a person on a personal staff from access to any document or information to which the Premier, the Minister or the Opposition Leader who appointed him has access.

(3) Notwithstanding subsection (1), a person on a personal staff shall be deemed—

(a) for the purposes of the Contributory Pensions Act 1970 and the Payroll Tax Act 1995 to be an employee of the Government; and

PREMIER, MINISTERS AND OPPOSITION LEADER PERSONAL STAFFS ACT

(b) for the purposes of the Government Employees (Health Insurance) Act

1986 to be a government employee employed in the Legislature.

8. Personal staffs personal to appointors

(1) Subject to subsection (2), a personal staff constituted by a particular Premier, Minister or Opposition Leader shall cease to exist as soon as he himself leaves that office.

(2) A person holding an appointment on a personal staff immediately before the date on which the Premier, the Minister or the Opposition Leader who appointed him left that office shall be entitled to receive, for the period of thirty days commencing on that date, the remuneration provided for in his instrument of appointment.

(3) For the purposes of this section, a Minister shall be deemed to have left office if the Governor amends his ministerial portfolio in accordance with section 61 of the Bermuda Constitution Order 1968.

Annual report

9 On or before 31 May, the Premier shall lay in each House of the Legislature a report listing the names of all persons who have served or are currently serving on any personal staff during the previous fiscal year, indicating—

(a) their functions;

(b) their gross remuneration for the entire fiscal year; and

(c) in the case of the personal staff of a Minister, whether each person was appointed as an expert in a specified field or as a political adviser.

10. Repeal of 1983 Act and transitional provision

(1) The Premier and Opposition Leader Personal Staffs Act 1983 is repealed.

(2) The repeal of the 1983 Act shall not affect the appointment of any person who, immediately before the commencement of this Act, is a member of the personal staff of the Premier or the Opposition Leader.

Commencement

11 This Act comes into operation on such day as the Premier may appoint by notice in the Gazette.

[Assent Date: 08 July 2019]

[Operative Date: 18 September 2019]