The people of the Cayman Islands have an opportunity to examine the contents of the package of Constitutional reforms and offer Government their feedback.
While the content of the package of reforms have been agreed by the United Kingdom, the Cayman Islands Government and the Opposition, both the Government and the Opposition believe it is important that the people of the Cayman Islands get the opportunity to scrutinize the planned changes and to ask any questions they may have.
The key documents can be found at www.exploregov.ky/constitutionalreform and are available by clicking the links at the foot of the page.
Questions and comments can be submitted by email to [email protected]
Once that process if finalised, the revised Constitutional Order will go through the formal process in the United Kingdom and it is expected that the new Order will be confirmed by the Privy Council in February 2020.
The Cayman Islands had been in constitutional discussions with the United Kingdom since last year because of concerns about unilateral actions of the UK Parliament in seeking to legislate for Overseas Territories.
The Cayman Islands sought these discussions because of a breach of convention and possible constitutional overreach in May 2018 when the House of Commons legislated for the British Overseas Territories in the area of domestic policy. Responsibility for domestic policy has been devolved to the territories under the terms of their respective Constitution Orders made by Her Majesty in Privy Council.
The Cayman Islands sought safeguards that confirm that the Cayman Islands Government has autonomous capacity in respect of domestic affairs, and that the UK will not seek in the future to legislate, directly or indirectly for the Cayman Islands without, at a minimum, consultation with the Cayman Islands Government.
Because the Constitutional Reforms have been agreed by the UK and the Cayman Islands Government and Opposition, the UK deemed it unnecessary to hold a referendum on the important but uncontroversial changes.