REPORt

ANNUAL

Parliamentary Year 2017/2018 Get in touch

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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 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 of the 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 ’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 The started issuing 50 pence banknotes in 1979. They were withdrawn from circulation in 1987. Tynwald and the Isle Isle of Man Tynwald Annual Report 2017/2018 Tynwald and Taxation

Tynwald's functions in relation to t