Social Development Commission (SDC) Executive Director Dr Dwayne Vernon has sought to distance his organisation from involvement in the procurement of the services of Westcon Construction Limited to carry out works in Prime Minister Andrew Holness...
The 25,000-strong Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) has signalled that it will not be “strong-armed” by the Government into signing the compensation restructuring agreement by the end of the current fiscal year in March. JTA President La Sonja...
The Government has pledged to formally establish the Constitutional Reform Committee at the end of the next round of Vale Royal talks expected to be convened before the end of February. At present, there is a stalemate between the Government and...
The slashing of the Government’s Agricultural Modernisation Programme by $150 million has angered St Ann South East Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna, who lambasted the administration Wednesday for treating small farmers with scant regard. The...
With a window of opportunity for delinquent motorists to settle unpaid traffic tickets with the courts set to close next Tuesday, the parliamentary Opposition is suggesting that the period of amnesty be extended to April 30. Legislation to allow...
The controversial pre-charge clause in the proposed Bail Act 2022 will be doomed to face fierce court challenges on its constitutionality, a senior oppposition member of a parliamentary review committee has warned. “We have listened carefully to...
A legislative fix has been found to plug a hole in the judicial system that caused 81-year-old Noel Chambers to die in a correctional facility in June 2020 after a 40-year wait for trial. That’s the word from Minister of Legal and Constitutional...
A government lawmaker and an opposition counterpart on Wednesday insisted that the word ‘defendant’ should not be used to describe a person who has not been charged with an offence. As the joint select committee considering the new Bail Act 2022...
Fourteen policemen are under scrutiny for their involvement in 30 of 129 fatal shootings over the one-year period ending June 2021. But more starkly, the same 14 have been flagged in 112 police-involved deaths between 2010 and June 30, 2021,...
The proposed bail law may contravene Jamaica’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms because the provisions cannot be shown to be “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society”, a law lecturer warned a parliamentary committee...
Despite employing its Yard to Yard Find the Child Initiative earlier this year to re-engage unaccounted-for high- and primary-school students during the heights of COVID-19, the Ministry of Education and Youth is reporting that more than 7,000 are...
Arguing that he took an oath in Parliament to defend the Constitution of Jamaica, Opposition Leader Mark Golding said that he could not support an extension of the current states of emergency (SOEs) imposed a week ago. Debating the extension for...
The offence of murder could soon attract more stringent penalties as the Government prepares to take legislation to Parliament in a matter of weeks to increase the minimum sentencing for the heinous crime to 30 years. Prime Minister Andrew Holness...
Government Senator Don Wehby is pushing for an amendment to the Proceeds of Crime Act to allow for unexplained wealth orders as a means of bolstering the country’s response to crime. Unexplained wealth orders have been introduced in other...
At least one civil society group is expressing concern that parliamentarians have been operating without a code of conduct despite pledges to craft and implement one from as far back as 2009. The concern is highlighted even as an impeachment bill...
Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Kamina Johnson Smith is warning Jamaicans who engage in commercial fishing outside of the country’s maritime borders to desist from the illegal practice as it could land them in trouble with the law in...
Head of National Integrity Action (NIA), Professor Trevor Munroe, wants lawmakers to search for “balance” as they review the so-called gag clause in the Integrity Commission Act, 2017, a provision that continues to be hotly debated among...
Prime Minister Andrew Holness and House Speaker Marisa Dalrymple Philibert have been urged to “sanction” William ‘J.C.’ Hutchinson, a member of the executive, for actions adjudged to constitute a conflict of interest and for being cited for...
The tightly held “secret and confidential” information in relation to Quarterly Contract Award (QCA) reports of public bodies may once again see the light of day as officials at Jamaica’s single anti-corruption body continue to push for an...
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has defended the action of the Government to demolish 10 incomplete structures on reserved lands adjacent to the Clifton community in the Greater Bernard Lodge Development Area in St Catherine, charging that if left...
A 73-year-old law introduced in Jamaica when there was no cure for leprosy is to be repealed. The Leprosy Act of 1949 makes provision for, and regulates, the custody and treatment of persons with leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease. In 2011,...
Leader of Opposition Business Phillip Paulwell has given notice that the parliamentary Opposition intends to invoke Standing Order 17B, more commonly referred to as Prime Minister’s (PM) Question Time, on Tuesday, when the head of Government is...
The Bail Act 2022 tabled in Parliament on Wednesday has introduced new provisions that may deny bail to someone accused of committing murder within a zone of special operations (ZOSO), or in an area where a curfew or state of public emergency has...
Opposition Senator Gabriela Morris stirred controversy in the upper House on Friday, triggering a spirited response from government senators when she castigated Education Minister Fayval Williams for reportedly suggesting that a particular dress...
Members of a joint select committee reviewing the Jamaica Teaching Council Act, 2022, have agreed with a recommendation from a key education stakeholder that a person masquerading as a teacher should face tougher penalties than a teacher who has...
