Career and background
From 2001 to 2007 Jaspert worked for Surrey County Council as Lead Manager for Children's Services. He then spent two years at HM Treasury as part of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit,followed by three years at the Home Office as Head of Drugs and Alcohol and Head of Policing. From 2012 to 2014 he worked at 10 Downing Street as Private Secretary to the Prime Minister,David Cameron,after which he spent a year studying at the Royal College of Defence Studies,an institution which grooms public servants who "have the potential to reach the highest ranks". [4] He then spent two years in the Cabinet Office as Director of Security and Intelligence,National Security Secretariat,before taking up appointment as Governor of the British Virgin Islands. [5]
He graduated with a first class degree in History and German from the University of Edinburgh in 2001,and in 2015 was awarded a master's degree with distinction in International Security and Strategy from King's College London. [6] [7]
Governor of the British Virgin Islands
Shortly after being sworn into office as Governor,the British Virgin Islands was struck by Hurricane Irma. Jaspert declared a state of emergency 16 days after being sworn in,thus becoming the first ever Governor of the British Virgin Islands to exercise that power under the Constitution. Governor Jaspert has been widely praised for his quick response which possibly saved the territory. [8]
Shortly before demitting office Jaspert launched a corruption inquiry in the Territory, [9] appointing Sir Gary Hickinbottom commissioner. Sir Gary's report concluded that governance in the Territory had been "appallingly bad",and that it was "highly likely" that serious dishonesty had taken place. [10] Jaspert was widely criticised and defamed in one Government-linked online news site,yet the findings of the report confirmed Jaspert had been correct. [11]
The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and north-west of Anguilla. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles and part of the West Indies.
The History of the British Virgin Islands is usually, for convenience, broken up into five separate periods:
Tortola is the largest and most populated island of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It has a surface area of 55.7 square kilometres with a total population of 23,908, with 9,400 residents in Road Town. Mount Sage is its highest point at 530 metres above sea level.
In practice, basic human rights in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) appear to be respected. Reports of repression of freedom of speech, interference with democracy or the rule of law, and arbitrary arrest and torture are generally non-existent. The BVI have been described as "generally free of human rights abuses".
Sir Gary Robert Hickinbottom is a retired British judge who currently serves as Knight Principal of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor. In 2008, he became the fourth solicitor to be appointed a High Court judge, after Michael Sachs in 1993, Lawrence Collins in 2000, and Henry Hodge in 2004.
BVI Airways is a defunct airline of the British Virgin Islands. Its headquarters were located at its hub at Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport serving the territory's main island of Tortola with the capital, Road Town. It suspended inter-island operations in late 2014, shortly after a change of ownership to concentrate on a non-stop schedule directly to the United States. The company slogan was Your Caribbean Airline.
The Constitution of the British Virgin Islands is a predominantly codified constitution documented primarily within the Virgin Islands Constitution Order, 2007 a statutory instrument of the United Kingdom. The 2007 Constitution was the fourth written constitution of the British Virgin Islands, and superseded the 1976 constitution. In addition to the constitution itself, a number of the constitutional powers of the British Virgin Islands government are specified a "letter of entrustment" from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which delegates powers to the British Virgin Islands government to represent itself in certain external affairs.
Julian Fraser is a British Virgin Islander politician who formerly belonged to the opposition Virgin Islands Party in the British Virgin Islands, and in August 2018 formed a new party, Progressives United.
John James Rankin, is a British diplomat and a former ambassador to Nepal. He served as the Governor of the British Virgin Islands from January 2021 to January 2024. He was the Governor of Bermuda from December 2016 to December 2020.
Andrew Alturo Fahie is a British Virgin Islands politician who served as Premier of the British Virgin Islands from 2019 to 2022. He was also the chairman of the Virgin Islands Party in the British Virgin Islands from 2016 to 2022.
Events from the year 2017 in the British Virgin Islands.
Events from the year 2014 in the British Virgin Islands.
Events from the year 2018 in the British Virgin Islands.
The effects of Hurricane Irma in the British Virgin Islands were significant in terms of both human and socio-economic impact on the Territory. Hurricane Irma struck the British Virgin Islands as a Category 5 hurricane during the daylight hours of Wednesday, 6 September 2017. It caused widespread destruction, and killed a total of four people. The eye of the hurricane traveled over the three major islands in the group: Virgin Gorda, Tortola and Jost Van Dyke.
Events from the year 2019 in the British Virgin Islands.
Events from the year 2020 in the British Virgin Islands.
Events from the year 2021 in the British Virgin Islands.
Events from the year 2022 in the British Virgin Islands.
The British Virgin Islands 2021 Commission of Inquiry was a public inquiry commissioned by the then Governor of the British Virgin Islands, Augustus Jaspert. The terms of reference were to make "a full, faithful and impartial inquiry into whether there was information that corruption, abuse of office or other serious dishonesty in relation to officials, whether statutory, elected or public, may have taken place in recent years; if there were such information, to consider the conditions which allowed such conduct to take place and whether they may still exist; and, if appropriate, to make independent recommendations with a view to improving the standards of governance and the operation of the agencies of law enforcement and justice in the Territory".
General elections were held in the British Virgin Islands on 24 April 2023. The governing Virgin Islands Party (VIP) remained the largest party in the House of Assembly but lost its majority resulting in a hung parliament.
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