Government proposes modified timeframe for enhanced delivery of Strategic Policy Statement to Parliament

Grand Cayman, 13 June 2025 – The Cayman Islands Government proposes an amendment to the Islands’ budget process allowing a newly-elected Government a modified timeframe to deliver a more accurate bi-annual Strategic Policy Statement (SPS) to Parliament in an election year. 

Cabinet approved the Public Management and Finance (Amendment) Bill, 2025 to amend the Public Management and Finance Act (2020 Revision) accordingly in its meeting on 11 June.

The Bill is intended to be brought to Parliament later this month and will change the date of the presentation of the Strategic Policy Statement, or SPS, to Parliament – in the year of a General Election only - from three months to six months after the General Election date.

            Minister for Finance & Economic Development Hon. Rolston Anglin said, “After a General Election, the incoming Government currently has three months to present our Strategic Policy Statement, which is the roadmap for how we plan, budget, and spend responsibly. But we have found that three months is just not enough time to ensure we are planning responsibly and strategically, with all of the information we need and taking all potential contingencies into account. So, we are proposing to extend the deadline to deliver the SPS to six months, which would take us to 31 October, by which date the SPS would be presented to Parliament.”

            Minister Anglin continued, “This gives us time to plan properly; improve accuracy in our budgeting; and support more responsible, transparent financial decisions as part of our bigger push to modernise Government’s budget process.”

            Premier Hon. Andre Ebanks described the change as part of the new administration’s overall ethos of modernisation, efficiency and innovation.

            He said, “This administration is making a concerted effort to innovate systems and processes that may have been in existence for the past two decades, or longer, but are ripe for reform to introduce greater efficiency and precision—this is just the start of this effort.”

            Minister Anglin noted that the Government is proposing a modified timeframe for the presentation of the SPS to Parliament after a General Election, for a few reasons.

“First, Parliament Standing Orders 2025 mandate a recess from the first week of July until the first week of September each year. Since the SPS is currently required to be presented to Parliament by 31 July 2025, the House is going to be on recess when the SPS is legally due for presentation. And there just isn’t enough time before Parliament recesses on 30 June for the Government to prepare an SPS that is meaningful and reliable,” Minister Anglin said.

Secondly, Minister Anglin noted that the Ministry of Finance is currently modernising the Government’s budgeting and reporting framework to present the first outcome-based budget for 2028 to 2029. As part of the modernisation, the Ministry intends to combine the SPS with the Budget, and eliminate the need for separate processes.

And finally, since the SPS is usually presented to Parliament a few months before the Budget, the financial forecasts contained in the SPS consistently differ in a significant way to the financial forecasts contained in the Budget.

Minister Anglin said, “This has been demonstrated for the past 12 financial years, with the 2024 to 2026 SPS presented in April 2023 showing an operating surplus that was 44 percent higher than that projected in the 2024 to 2025 budget which was presented to Parliament in December 2023.”

The Public Management and Finance (Amendment) Bill, 2025 consists of three main parts:

• Clause 1 provides the name of the proposed Act;
• Clause 2 makes a general amendment to replace the words “Legislative Assembly” with the word “Parliament”; and
• Clause 3 amends section 23 to provide that the SPS should be presented to Parliament within six months after the date of the General Election and not three months as currently provided.

Minister Anglin said, “Ultimately, this Bill strengthens our ability to deliver responsible financial management and transparent budgeting, which are the core principles of good governance and public trust. We intend to ensure that public funds are being strategically directed to our key national priorities, and are being used efficiently and effectively to do the most good for the people of our Islands.”

A video message from Minister Anglin on the proposed amendments may be found at: https://youtu.be/yQ7gslyBEZE

The Public Management and Finance (Amendment) Bill, 2025 was published in The Cayman Islands Gazette on 13 June 2025, and can be found at: https://www.gov.ky/publication-detail/legislation-gazette-26-2025 and https://www.gov.ky/publication-detail/public-management-and-finance-(amendment)-bill,-2025,-(lg26,-s1)