Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced the new and amended measures contained in this order in Parliament last week Tuesday (October 6, 2020). That the Gazette was posted on the governement website a week later is problematic, but it is the pattern that has prevailed throughout the many months since these Orders have been used. Perhaps we are meant to be grateful that the gazetted orders are posted on the Ministry of Justice, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Health & Wellness (scroll all the way to the bottom of the page) websites, albeit some time after the measures are announced, as initially they were not posted online by the government at all.
On September 15, 2020, I sent the following Access to information request to both the Ministry of Health & Wellness (MOHW) and the Office of the Cabinet (CO):
“I would like to make a request for the following information under the Access to Information Act:
1) Documents containing information regarding the use of curfews as a measure to reduce risk of Covid-19 transmission during Easter public holidays April 2020
2) Documents containing information regarding use of curfews as a measure to reduce risk of Covid-19 transmission during Labour Day public holidays May 2020
3) Documents containing information regarding use of curfews as a measure to reduce risk of Covid-19 transmission during Emancipation and Independence public holidays August 2020 These documents could be dated prior to or after the relevant public holidays.”
I received an acknowledgement from the MOHW on September 17, 2020…
“This acknowledges receipt of your Access to Information requesting documents as detailed in bullets 1-3 below.
Please be advised that we have started the necessay research and will revert to you as soon as possible within the timelines of the Access to Information Act 2002.”
…and a subsequent phone call to clarify the information that I was seeking.
On September 21, 2020, I received the following acknowledgement of my request from CO:
On October 7, 2020, I received this response from MOHW, indicating that no documents relevant to my request were found:
Today, October 9, 2020, I received this response from CO indicated that no documents related to my request were located:
I just want to note that this response does not indicate that there are documents containing this information, but that they are exempt because of being Cabinet documents as set out in Section 15 of the Access to Information Act.
So, there are no documents in the possession of either the Ministry of Health & Wellness or the Office of the Cabinet that contain information about the use of curfews as a measure to reduce the risk of the transmission of Covid-19 during the Easter, Labour Day or Emancipation and Independence public holidays this year. Documents dated either before or after these public holidays.
Increased curfew hours have been announced for the upcoming Heroes’ Day public holiday. I wonder if any documents containing information about this exist at the Ministry or the Cabinet Office?
In Parliament this afternoon (October 6, 2020), Prime Minister Andrew Holness made a statement about the current situation concerning Covid-19 in Jamaica and announced a number of changes to the measures pertaining to the management of the pandemic. These measures will be found in the Disaster Risk Management Order No.14, which is not yet available. Some of the measures went into effect at 6pm this evening; others go into effect tomorrow.
Below is the text of the Prime Minister’s statement and I have also included a link to the recording of today’s sitting of the House.
Two areas will have additional measures imposed because of a spike in the number of cases of Covid-19 that have been reported. They are Whitfield Town in Kingston and Waterford in St Catherine. The boundaries of the communities are given below:
The Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica (PBCJ) recording of today’s sitting of the House can be found at this link and allows for the checking of the text of the PM’s statement against delivery.
The Gazette of the most recent Disaster Risk Management Order is now available and I have posted a copy below. Prime Minister Holness announced the new or amended measures at a press conference on Tuesday (September 22, 2020).
Checks this afternoon of the ususal Ministry of Justice and Office of the Prime Minister’s websites showed that the Gazette of the new Order was not posted there, but the Ministry of Health & Wellness tweeted out a link to Order No. 13 on its website, which was a surprise.
Amendment No. 4 contains the protocols governing the access to voting for Election Day (September 3, 2020) for people in quarantine or isolation due to Covid-19.
There are two amendments to Disaster Risk Management No. 11 Order, one dated August 5, 2020 & the other dated August 18, 2020. Here are copies of the gazetted amendments:
The Gazette of the Disaster Risk Management (Emergency Measures) (No. 11) Order, 2020 is available. It contains measures announced by Prime Minster Holness in Parliament on Tuesday, July 28, 2020. Many of the measures will expire on September 30, 2020, unless amended prior to that date.
The Gazette of the Disaster Risk Management Order No. 10 was posted on the website of the Ministry of Justice today (July 20, 2020). It contains measures announced by Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie in Parliament on July 14, 2020. The Gazette is dated July 15, 2020, although it was not available when I called Jamaica Printing Services on July 17 to ask if I could obtain a copy.
As of the time of posting my blog, the gazetted copy of the Order has been posted on the Ministry of Justice website, but not yet on the Office of the Prime Minister or Ministry of Health and Wellness websites.
The Gazette of the most recent Disaster Risk Management (Enforcement Measures) Order was posted on three government websites this afternoon (July 9, 2020). The Gazette of this Order – No. 9 – is dated July 1, 2020, although it wasn’t gazetted on or before July 1. This doesn’t surprise me anymore, as it seems to be common with the gazetting of these Orders, that they are given a date which is earlier than the date on which they are actually gazetted.
These are the links to the document on the 