T Y N W A L D C O U R T O F F I C I A L R E P O R T R E C O R T Y S O I K O I L Q U A I Y L T I N V A A L P R O C E E D I N G S D A A L T Y N (HANSARD) S T A N D I N G C O M M I T T E E O F T Y N W A L D O N S C R U T I N Y B I N G V E A Y N T I N V A A L M Y C H I O N E S C R U T A G H E Y Douglas, Thursday, 5th May 2011 All published Official Reports can be found on the Tynwald website www.tynwald.org.im Official Papers/Hansards/Please select a year: Reports, maps and other documents referred to in the course of debates may be consulted upon application to the Tynwald Library or the Clerk of Tynwald’s Office. PP88/11 TS, No. 2 Published by the Office of the Clerk of Tynwald, Legislative Buildings, Finch Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 3PW. © Court of Tynwald, 2011 STANDING COMMITTEE, THURSDAY, 5th MAY 2011 Members Present: Chairman: Mrs B J Cannell, MHK Mr P Karran, MHK Mr E G Lowey, MLC Mr W M Malarkey, MHK Clerk: Mr J King Apologies: Mr R P Braidwood, MLC BUSINESS TRANSACTED Page Procedural ............................................................................................................................................. 23 Evidence of Mr I Thompson, Chief Executive, Department of Infrastructure, with Mrs A Craig, Strategic Planning and Governance Manager, in attendance............................. 23 The Committee sat in private at 4.53 p.m. _________________________________________________________________ 22 TS STANDING COMMITTEE, THURSDAY, 5th MAY 2011 Standing Committee of Tynwald on Scrutiny The Committee sat in public at 3.35 p.m. in the Legislative Council Chamber, Legislative Buildings, Douglas [MRS CANNELL in the Chair] Procedural The Chairman (Mrs Cannell): Good afternoon, everybody. May I welcome you to this sitting of the Standing Committee of Tynwald on Scrutiny. I chair these meetings and I am Mrs Brenda Cannell, Member of the House of Keys. My other 5 Committee Members: to my right, Mr Bill Malarkey, Member of the House of Keys; to my left, Mr Eddie Lowey, Member of the Legislative Council; and my further left, is Mr Peter Karran, also a Member of the House of Keys. We also have one other Member, Mr Braidwood, who has been unable to attend today. Our Clerk for the day is Mr King, who is on my far right and our Hansard reporter is Mrs Callister. 10 If I could ask everybody that if you have a mobile phone on you, if you could please put it off and not just keep it on silent because it can interfere with the electronic equipment and the recording equipment. If I can state for the record the remit of the Committee. It is to consider items of approved or rejected legislation, secondary legislation, which has been referred by Members and other items of 15 secondary legislation, as the Committee sees fit, and report to Tynwald, as and when the Committee sees fit; to examine the Annual Tynwald Policy Decisions Report and consider whether the action taken has adequately responded to Tynwald resolutions; and to consider whether any of the Tynwald resolutions which have not been fully implemented are appropriate for removal from the list; and lay an annual report before Tynwald, with recommendations for 20 action where appropriate. In this remit, ‘secondary legislation’ includes orders made by Her Majesty’s Privy Council, extending to the Isle of Man, the provisions of an Act of Parliament or of any orders, rules or regulations made thereunder. Currently, we are here today to take evidence from the Chief Executive and also his assistant, 25 who I welcome, Mrs Amanda Craig. Mr Ian Thompson is the Chief Executive of the new Department of Infrastructure and all of this, what we are focusing on at the moment, is following on from the Scope and Structure of Government Report, which was then looked at by the Chief Minister and a committee of Ministers, which came forward just over a year ago, with the restructuring of Government. We have taken evidence from all Government Departments, but we 30 have invited Mr Thompson, in particular, today, and we are very pleased that he has agreed to attend because that particular Department seems to have expanded quite significantly and perhaps could be viewed as the largest, if not one of the largest, of Government Departments under the new structuring regime. EVIDENCE OF MR I THOMPSON with Mrs A Craig in attendance Q85. The Chairman: First of all, I welcome you both and I would just like to invite Mr 35 Thompson, if he wishes, to make a statement at this stage. Mr Thompson: I think, first of all, thank you for inviting us along and we are pleased to be here. _________________________________________________________________ 23 TS STANDING COMMITTEE, THURSDAY, 5th MAY 2011 I would like to just add a bit to your comments, Chairman. The first one was, perhaps, no, we 40 are not the largest Department, but we may be the most varied now, inasmuch as Health and Education are clearly bigger than us in numerical terms, but in terms of diversity, probably right, we may even be the most varied and largest. From the old DoT, particularly, perhaps for the record and for members of the public present, the difference between the DoT that everybody knew in the past and where we are today is whilst, 45 under the Transfer of Functions Order, we lost the Drainage Division to the new Water and Sewerage Authority, we have taken on board the Health and Safety Inspectorate, the Planning and Building Control Division, Waste Management, the Local Government Unit, the properties element of the Department of Local Government and the Environment and also their architect and engineering function. We have taken on, from what was the Department of Trade and Industry, 50 responsibility for the overview of the Manx Electricity Authority and for the Water and Sewerage Authority. Shortly we will take on board responsibility for properties from Home Affairs, DCCL and Economic Development and, ultimately, we will also be taking on board the Department of Health estates and those from Education. That is a factual statement of what has happened to us since 1st April last year. 55 Q86. The Chairman: Okay. The list that you have just given us, does that include every variation within the Department? I was just wondering if, perhaps, you could list all of the different variations? 60 Mr Thompson: I am not quite sure – The Chairman: Well, first of all you got… These are additional responsibilities – Mr Thompson: Those that we did originally, yes. 65 The Chairman: But the original responsibilities, as well: it would be useful for us to have a whole list of all the responsibilities. Yes. Mr Thompson: Yes, of course, sorry. Sorry for not following you. 70 We still have Highways Division. We have our own Properties Division. We have Operations, which is, of course, quite varied: it has building works; it has civil engineering works; it covers divers; it covers central plant, vehicles. We have got, apart from our own internal management function, in terms of our own internal Health and Safety, the Airport, which is a Division in its own right, Harbours and I think that is about it. It is probably enough, isn’t it? 75 Mr Malarkey: No taxis! Q87. The Chairman: Okay, when you say your own Division of properties that fell under the former Department of Transport, does that still also include animal waste matters? 80 Mr Thompson: That was one of the new areas from Local Government that we picked up, which was Waste, yes. That has now merged into what was the part of the former DoLGE that used to do the Energy from Waste Facility, and that kind of thing. 85 Q88. The Chairman: But Properties within the former Department of Transport were responsible for animal waste by-products, weren’t they? Mr Thompson: We have still got that. 90 Q89. The Chairman: You have still got that? Mr Thompson: Yes, and there is a very good synergy between the Energy from Waste Facility and the Animal Waste Plant being built next to each other. 95 Q90. The Chairman: So that is quite a large portfolio, then, for the Department. Mr Thompson: It is. _________________________________________________________________ 24 TS STANDING COMMITTEE, THURSDAY, 5th MAY 2011 Q91. The Chairman: Have you been given an increase in staffing levels in order to cope with 100 all of this? Mr Thompson: Obviously, the general sections that we took over, we took responsibility for, such as Health and Safety, we inherited – if that is the right word – or the establishment of those areas was devolved to us. Just talking about Health and Safety, there is essentially a need for a 105 senior officer and three officers. In addition, what we actually inherited was only two posts: one had retired and the current situation is one is off sick, and there was not a senior post. We have now been successful in obtaining that post. I have selected and appointed and, in fact, we are on our way to the Work Permit Committee shortly. So that is the kind of a model of the kind of thing that we picked up.