It was agreed, at the informal constitutional talks in Lancaster House (9-11 December [2002]), that FCO officials would prepare a revised draft Constitution for further public consultation and discussion in the Cayman Islands. This has now been done and I should be grateful if you would ensure that the attached draft Constitution[5]and related proposed Orders in Council are made public and distributed widely in the Cayman Islands. The purpose is to allow both Government and Opposition parties to take the views of members of the public in Cayman in considering the way forward in the constitutional review process.

  The draft Constitution takes account of the report of the Constitutional Review Commission and subsequent public comments as well as the discussions at the Lancaster House meeting. We have sought to produce a text that we hope will command broad public support in the Cayman Islands.

  The draft Constitution proposes a Legislative Assembly of 17 elected members representing 17 single member constituencies. The boundaries of such constituencies would have to be set out in a schedule to any new Constitution. We have therefore prepared a draft interim Order in Council which would amend the present Constitution, in advance of the introduction of the new Constitution, in order to:

(a)

provide for the establishment of an Electoral Boundary Commission to make recommendations on the boundaries of the 17 single-member constituencies;

(b)

establish the offices of Leader of Government Business and Leader of the Opposition (whose only constitutional function would be to nominate a member each to the Electoral Boundary Commission); and

(c)

change the name of the Executive Council to Cabinet.

  The draft Order imports, for the purposes of the Boundary Commission's work, the revised franchise qualifications and the definition of "Caymanian" envisaged for the new Constitution. This is necessary to enable the Commission to achieve a broadly even distribution of voters among the 17 constituencies. The Boundary Commission is to report to the Governor, who in turn is to transmit the report to the Secretary of State together with the record of any debate in the Legislative Assembly on the report. If the report and its boundary recommendations are accepted within the Cayman Islands, its recommendations describing the 17 constituencies would then be incorporated into the Second Schedule to the new Constitution.

  The interim Order would be revoked, along with the other existing Constitution Orders, when any new Constitution comes into force. It is envisaged that, as recommended by the Constitutional Review Commission, the new Constitution should, if parties agree, come into force on the next dissolution of the Legislative Assembly.

  We would suggest that early consideration is given to the draft interim Order providing for the establishment of a Boundary Commission for this purpose. Any Commission will require several months to come to a view on proposed new constituency boundaries and to make recommendations. The Commission should therefore be established fairly soon if the constitutional review process is not to be delayed. public discussion of the detail of the revised draft Constitution can of course proceed in slightly slower time.

  We should also draw attention to the proposal that the entry into force of the fundamental human rights chapter of the proposed new Constitution would be delayed until 1 January 2006 at the latest, as agreed at the Lancaster House talks, to allow time for the necessary legislative and administrative preparations to be completed in the Cayman Islands beforehand.

  I encourage all people in the Cayman Islands to read the draft Constitution and associated draft Orders carefully and contribute any comments to their elected representatives.

Baroness Amos

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

February 2003