There is also a president who must stand for election every four years, although there is no constitutional limit on the number of terms he may serve.

Routine government is performed by three committees, Policy and Finance, General Services, and Building and Development Control, each of which works under a different mandate and has a separate budget.

The island is a self-governing Crown Dependency, part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey since Elizabethan times.

Formally, ultimate legislative, executive and judicial authority continues to vest in the Privy Council which approves all primary legislation passed by the States of Alderney, and through its Judicial Committee, is its highest court of appeal.

(There is an analogous power in respect of the British Overseas Territories which has been exercised in recent years, in order to deal with systemic corruption in the Turks and Caicos Islands.)

The United Kingdom's Home Secretary, Chuter Ede recommended "Guernseyfication" of Alderney.