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Tynwald 20Th February 2018

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Tynwald 20Th February 2018 TYNWALD COURT, WEDNESDAY, 21st FEBRUARY 2018 4. Select Committee on the Functioning of Tynwald – Third Report: Members’ CPD; Lord Bishop’s vote; Members’ pay – Debate commenced The Chairman of the Select Committee on the Functioning of Tynwald (Mr Speaker) to move: That the Third Report of the Select Committee on the Functioning of Tynwald [PP No 2018/0018] be received and the following recommendations be approved: Recommendation 1 The Tynwald Management Committee should be responsible for overseeing the Members’ Continuous Professional Development Programme. Recommendation 2 a. The Lord Bishop should retain his vote. (if the above recommendation is agreed to) b. Any Member of Tynwald who has a right to vote should be under the same duty to exercise that vote as any other Member; this applies to the Lord Bishop. (if the above recommendation is agreed to) c. Any Member of Tynwald who has a right to vote should be under the same duty to attend and count towards the quorum as any other Member; this applies to the Lord Bishop. Recommendation 3 The basic terms of reference of an inquiry into Members’ pay should therefore be: That Tynwald is of the opinion that the Isle of Man Government should establish an independent review to examine and report on the emoluments of Members of the House of Keys and Legislative Council, including all pay and allowances, with recommendations for a structure for salary and any related payments; and that the review should have regard to the following principles: • The salary and benefits must be sufficient to allow anyone to be able to serve in Tynwald; • The salary and benefits must be at a level to attract a diverse collection of community members; • Enhanced executive and scrutiny roles should be recognized; • Any change to the structure for pay and allowances must not result in an increase in overall costs of Members’ remuneration; and • The recommendations of the review should maintain the principle of linking Members’ basic pay to Civil Service salary levels. The President: We turn to Item 4 on the Order Paper, Select Committee on the Functioning of Tynwald. I call on the Chairman of the Select Committee, Mr Speaker, to move. The Chairman of the Select Committee on the Functioning of Tynwald (Mr Speaker): Thank 5 you, Mr President. The Third Report of the Committee on the Functioning of Tynwald examines three matters which have to some extent already received Tynwald approval in outline: continuous professional development; the role of the Lord Bishop; and the remit of a review of pay and enhancements for Members. ________________________________________________________________________ Hansard Extract Page 1 www.tynwald.org.im/business TYNWALD COURT, WEDNESDAY, 21st FEBRUARY 2018 10 Your Committee is pleased to report that the work on continuous professional development has already started. Following the General Election in 2016, Members received an enhanced initial briefing which was organised by the Clerk of Tynwald’s Office. We print in the Report a list of activities which have been undertaken as part of this process by way of a continuous professional development programme. I am happy to confirm that this programme is now an 15 established part of the system of formation for Tynwald Members. The Committee makes one recommendation in relation to this: that the Tynwald Management Committee should be responsible for overseeing the Members’ continuous professional development programme. This will ensure that the momentum for improvement will not be lost. I now turn to the question of the Lord Bishop. Last June Tynwald voted to retain the Bishop 20 as a Member of Tynwald. From that starting point the Committee has considered the presence of the Lord Bishop on the Island and the continuing existence of the Diocese in the context of our social and community framework. The Lord Bishop represents a significant part of our continuing heritage. However, the existence of the Diocese is not a mere historical accident that we wish to preserve but a continuing part of the Island’s cultural life. We believe that whilst the 25 Island continues to identify itself as a Christian nation there is a justification for the Bishop’s role in Tynwald. We were asked to consider specifically two matters in connection with the Lord Bishop and they are whether the Lord Bishop should be included in the quorum of the Legislative Council and whether he should be allowed to abstain. There is a further related issue: whether the Lord 30 Bishop should retain his vote. A proposal that the Bishop be deprived of his vote has been rejected by Tynwald twice, once on the basis of a disagreement between the Branches and once, in July 2017, on the basis of it being rejected by both Branches. I should emphasise that this is not the question that Tynwald referred to us for consideration and report; however, it is part of the background that we are entitled to consider. A decision on whether the Lord Bishop should 35 retain his vote sets the context in which the other matters, quorum and abstention, should be decided, so we include it here in our recommendations. It has been made quite apparent that the loss of the Bishop’s vote would mean the loss of the Bishop. Members will be able to read the very clear letter from the Archbishop of York on this matter. We also note that the loss of the Bishop’s vote would, without other changes, leave 40 an even number of voting Members of the Legislative Council. We have concluded that in the light of the value placed by Tynwald on the presence of the Lord Bishop his right to vote should be maintained. As a corollary of that, since it is a basic rule of Tynwald that all Members must attend Tynwald and the Branch of which they are a Member unless they seek leave of absence, and all Members must cast a vote if they are present in the Chamber, we think on principle that 45 this rule should apply to the Lord Bishop as well. Formal leave of absence is regularly given to Members in order to enable business to be carried on outside Tynwald. There is also a practical consideration, namely that if the Lord Bishop is not part of the quorum of Tynwald Court there may well be a practical difficulty in holding a March sitting of Tynwald in a year where there is an election for Members of Legislative Council. We have put the recommendations in an order that 50 will allow Tynwald to decide the questions in a logical order. And now to the simple matter of Members’ pay. Originally, the Committee was asked to consider the matter of MLCs’ pay only. Subsequently, Tynwald resolved on a combined vote that an independent review of all Members’ pay and allowances be undertaken, and it referred this recommendation to the Select Committee on the Functioning of Tynwald to report with 55 recommendations on the terms of reference of such a review. We have taken the later vote as replacing the original part of our remit and we focused on one inquiry for all Members of Tynwald. However, in setting the terms of reference we take note of the previous resolutions in relation to Members’ pay, which we have taken to apply to all Members’ pay, and they are: the salary and benefits must be sufficient to allow everyone to be able to serve; the salary and 60 benefits must be at a level to attract a diverse collection of community members; an enhanced ________________________________________________________________________ Hansard Extract Page 2 www.tynwald.org.im/business TYNWALD COURT, WEDNESDAY, 21st FEBRUARY 2018 role in scrutiny should be recognised; and any change to the structure for pay and allowances must not result in an increase in the overall budget for Members’ remuneration. All these principles are absolutely necessary in order to ensure that everyone on the Island who is eligible in law to serve has the practical means to do so. Public service must never go 65 back to being the exclusive preserve of the retired or the well-off members of society. We need a true cross-section of our community to be represented in Tynwald in both Branches. It would be unfortunate to undermine the progress that has been made in recent years in attracting young people who have not traditionally engaged with politics; our record number of younger Members and female Members is testament to that. 70 That said, the principal constraint set for the pay review is that it must be cost neutral. This must not result in an overall increase for Members of Tynwald; instead any changes will feature as a reapportionment of the available money. No change should be made to the principle that the pay of Members of Tynwald be linked to Civil Service pay. Within these constraints, we have left the remit of the inquiry as broad as possible in order to allow the inquiry latitude to make 75 wholesale reform of the system, so that it can reflect the expectations of the public and Members, as well as the demands of the modern political world. On a personal note, I should say that although I agree with the Report, I did formally record my dissent to the proposition that the Government should be in charge of commissioning the independent pay review. My personal view is that this is a matter that should be better kept for 80 Tynwald. I would also add that in my personal view Tynwald will not learn anything from an independent report that Members do not know already. This Report brings nearly to a close the examination of the areas which we were commissioned to undertake.
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