20181123 Annual Report SERIF
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2017/2018 Parliamentary Year Tynwald ANNUAL REPORt Get in touch Engage with Tynwald on Twitter @tynwaldinfo Get live updates during Tynwald sittings from @tynwaldlive We hope you will find this report useful. If you would like to comment on any aspect of it, please contact: The Clerk of Tynwald Office of the Clerk of Tynwald Legislative Buildings Finch Road Douglas Isle of Man IM1 3PW Telephone: +44 (0)1624 685500 Email: [email protected] An electronic copy of this report can be found at: http://www.tynwald.org.im/ business/pp/Reports/2018- PP-0139.pdf PP2018/0139 Tynwald Annual Report 2017/2018 Contents Page 3 Foreword 5 Tynwald and the Isle of Man 7 Changes in Political Membership 11 The Work of the Legislature 19 Tynwald Day 25 Inter-Parliamentary Engagement 33 Education and Outreach 39 The Office of the Clerk of Tynwald 43 Appendix 1 The 1979 Crown was issued to mark the 300th anniversary of Manx Coinage. An Act of Tynwald was passed in 1679 proclaiming John Murray’s Pence tokens of 1668 to be legal tender in the Isle of Man. Foreword Tynwald Annual Report 2017/2018 President of Tynwald Speaker of the House of Keys The Hon Stephen Charles Rodan BSc The Hon Juan Paul Watterson BA BFP FCA (Hons) MRPharmS MLC CMgr FCMI SHK The closing of the 2017/8 Session marks the end of the first two years of the electoral period between the 2016 General Election and the next one in September 2021; the coming Session will see the halfway point in the electoral cycle and now is a suitable moment to look back at achievements and to look forward to new challenges. A great deal has been done to reform Tynwald, which has included reforming the method of electing the Chief Minister and redefining the responsibilities of the Legislative Council. A further significant change is establishing a Committee to oversee Constitutional, Legal Affairs and Justice – the previous gap in oversight of the courts and the legal system has meant that reforms have tended to stall. The immediate past has been dominated politically by the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union and the consequent impact on the Isle of Man. The Government has concentrated its efforts on this subject and it is hard to over-state the scope of the challenge facing the Island in the wake of “Brexit”, which has dominated the Chief Minister’s agenda during the year. In the coming Session the legislative branches will debate the European Union and Trade Bill 2018, which will be the legislative vehicle for providing the necessary subordinate legislation to organize the basis for whatever new relationship the Island has with the European Union. This Bill is of historic importance to the Island. A serious consequence of “Brexit” is the need to pass an immense amount of legislation at great speed in order to allow continuing trade with the European Union. Managing this process and ensuring that the procedures to be followed will allow proper scrutiny of the legislation will be one of the most important challenges to Tynwald for a generation. Whatever solutions are found to the competing needs of on the one hand making far-reaching legislation in great quantity with a short deadline and on the other the requirement to scrutinise and amend legislation, getting this process right will demand all the collective will of Tynwald and officers. Foreword 3 Tynwald and the The Isle of Man Treasury started issuing 50 pence banknotes in 1979. They were withdrawn from circulation in 1987. Isle of Man Tynwald Annual Report 2017/2018 Tynwald and Taxation Tynwald's functions in relation to taxation have developed over the centuries. The development of these functions was curtailed between 1765 and 1958 by an intervention of the UK Parliament. Writing in 1900, Speaker Moore identified a provision of the Customary Laws of 1422 as the first mention of customs duties. He had no doubt that such duties had been in existence from an earlier date. The oldest surviving list of customs rates is from 1577. These rates were determined by the Earl of Derby, Lord of Man, and subsequently proclaimed as law by the Deemsters at St John's without reference to Tynwald. The idea that Tynwald itself might set rates of taxation gathered strength in the first half of the eighteenth century. An Act of Tynwald in 1706 provided for the raising of taxes to fund expenditure under three distinct headings: expenses relating to the recent Act of Settlement; the construction of a new building for the House of Keys in Castletown; and improvements to the Chapel at St John's. In 1713 an Act obliged the owners of land adjoining highways to fund their repair. In 1737 an Act not only authorised but also amended customs rates which had been laid down by the Earl of Derby in 1692. Tynwald's increasing engagement with fiscal matters came to an abrupt halt when, in 1767, soon after the Revestment, an Act of the UK Parliament replaced many Manx rates of duty and reserved to the UK Parliament control of expenditure of the resulting receipts. The safeguards secured by Parliamentarians over public expenditure as a result of the Civil War did not extend to Tynwald. A century later, by an Act of 1866, the UK Parliament allowed Tynwald a say over public expenditure in the Island but this was limited to a small proportion of available funds and was also subject to a Governor's veto. A UK Act of 1887 restored to Tynwald a power to vary customs rates but this was subject to approval by the UK Treasury and to ratification within six months by the UK Parliament. The transfer of financial powers from, in effect the Crown, to Tynwald was a focus of demands by MHKs and others throughout the first half of the twentieth century. It was eventually delivered through Acts of the UK Parliament and Tynwald in 1958. Significant use was soon made of the Island's hard-won fiscal autonomy. After a long debate on 21st June 1960 Tynwald resolved that surtax should be abolished with the intention of increasing the population of the Island. The necessary Bill went through all stages in the Legislative Council on 28th June 1960 and was debated at length in the Keys on 1st and 8th November 1960. It was carried in the Keys despite eloquent opposition from Garff MHK Charles Kerruish who as part of his attack on the Bill deployed, among other things, the poetry of Rudyard Kipling. Tynwald's 1958 Finance Act required the Governor to lay accounts and estimates each year. For most of the 1960s and 70s Tynwald debated the estimates for every Board in March; it then debated the Budget as a whole, including any proposed changes to taxation, in May. It was rare for any Member to vote against the Budget but this did happen in 1971 and 1974. From 1985 the numerous estimates debates were brought together into a single estimates debate; from 1991 the estimates debate was abandoned, having been deemed anachronistic in the age of the Ministerial system. Since then, while the Budget debate has continued as an annual opportunity for Tynwald to consider taxation, it has also become the main occasion on which Tynwald debates expenditure. In 2017 and 2018 the Public Accounts Committee heard oral evidence from Treasury Minister about the Isle of Man Budget after it had been approved by Tynwald. 5 with polymer (plastic) banknotes, it was expected to last between five and 15 years. In 1983 the Manx £1 note was printed on tyvek. Regarded as one of the earliest experiments Changes in Political Membership Tynwald Annual Report 2017/2018 Changes in Political Membership The Legislative Council, the second Chamber of Tynwald, holds elections for four of its Members twice in every five years. On the 28th February 2018, five seats became vacant - four from expired terms and one from a retirement. David Anderson was elected as Member of the House of Keys for Glenfaba in 2001, being re-elected twice before becoming a Member of the Legislative Council in 2015. He served as Minister for Education, Transport, and Health, as well as serving as a Member of various Departments and Committees. In his last Tynwald sitting, the President thanked him for his varied service and paid tribute to him as "a man of integrity, an honourable man, a team player and, as those who know him well can vouch, a gentleman ... whom it has been a great pleasure to know and work with." Michael Coleman was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Council in 2013. Before his election, Mr Coleman had served on various public Boards. He became a Member of the Department of Home Affairs for the duration of his Council Membership, and served as Member of various Tynwald Committees. The President praised Mr Coleman for his valuable and discreet contribution, "If the public could only see the work and dedication behind the scenes... that this Member has performed, they would see the ideal of public service politically at its best." Geoff Corkish was first elected as a Member of the House of Keys in 2006 and again in 2011, being elected to the Legislative Council in 2013. He was a Member of different Departments and Chair of various Committees of Tynwald and the Council of Ministers. The President said of Mr Corkish, "We will sincerely miss your presence as a consensus builder in many aspects, a maintainer of high standards and as a people person, and I think we will all miss the basso profundo ringing in our ears." Following a career in radio and television, Juan Turner was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Council in 2007 and re-elected twice .