Parliamentary Procedure

Bill to Act: How laws are made

Primary Legislation

The laws of the Isle of Man, Acts of Tynwald, begin life as Bills. The majority of these Bills are Public Bills, which are Bills that affect everyone. They are normally introduced either by the Government or on the initiative of an individual Member who has been given leave by the House (and where the Bill has financial implications, has obtained Isle of Man Treasury agreement in principle) to introduce the Bill. It is also possible for outside bodies or individuals to petition either the Keys or the Council for leave to introduce Private Bills, which are Bills of a local or personal character. The procedure for considering Bills is essentially the same for each category of Bill.

Most Bills begin their passage through Tynwald in the House of Keys, although they may begin in the Legislative Council. The Bill follows the same procedure in each Branch regardless of where it begins. 

First Reading

The First Reading of a Bill is the initial stage of its consideration. The first reading formally brings the Bill before the House. The Secretary reads the short title of the Bill and states the name of the Member taking the Bill through the House. There is no debate or vote.

Second Reading

The Second Reading of the Bill takes place at a subsequent sitting of the House. At this stage the general principles and ideas behind the Bill are debated, and the Bill is voted on.

After the motion ‘that the Bill be now read a second time’ is carried, the Bill, or some of its clauses, may be referred to a Bill Committee appointed by the House. In this case, once the report of a committee has been considered, the Bill proceeds to the Clauses Stage.

Clauses Stage

At the Clauses Stage the House considers and debates the Bill clause by clause.  Amendments may be moved to the clauses and new clauses added. In the House the clauses are considered either individually or in groups on a motion that the clause or clauses "stand part" of the Bill.

At this stage some or all of the clauses may be referred to a committee; the House proceeds with the Bill once it has considered the report of the committee.

When consideration of the clauses of the Bill has been completed, the Bill proceeds to the next stage, the Third Reading, at a subsequent sitting.

Third Reading

At the Third Reading, the Bill, as then agreed by the House, is further debated on a motion ‘that this Bill be now read a third time’. For this motion to be carried at least 13 members of the Keys must vote in favour.

The Bill is then submitted to the Legislative Council for its consideration. The Bill goes through three Readings and a Clauses stage in the Council, which are similar to their counterparts in the House of Keys.

Find out more about the consideration of legislation in the Legislative Council.

Council Amendments

If the Council amends the Bill, the amendments are considered by the Keys. At this stage the House may agree, disagree, or amend the Council amendments, or disagree with the amendments, and seek a conference with the Council to resolve the differences between the two Branches. The President of Tynwald presides when there is a conference, which is held in private. If an agreement is reached at the Conference this is reported to the House where the conference agreement may be approved or disapproved.

Where a disagreement cannot be resolved, under the Isle of Man Constitution Act 1961 if a Bill is passed by the House of Keys and rejected by the Council, it may proceed without the agreement of the Council. The power of the Council is therefore ultimately a delaying power.

Signing and Royal Assent

After a Bill has been passed by both the House of Keys and the Legislative Council it must be signed by at least five members of the Council and thirteen members of the Keys in Tynwald Court before it may be submitted for Royal Assent. The Royal Assent is now commonly given to Bills by the Lieutenant Governor acting on behalf of the Crown but the Crown reserves the right to determine whether Royal Assent should be given to any particular Bill.

Promulgation

There remains one final procedure. An Act of Tynwald must be promulgated (read out in Manx and English) within 18 months on Tynwald Hill, St. John's, or it ceases to have effect.​

Secondary Legislation

Secondary legislation can be used for a wide range of purposes. Often it provides the technical details that make the primary legislation work in practice. A typical example is where primary legislation gives the power for a fee or fine to be charged or a tax to be raised, the amount to be charged will be specified in secondary legislation. Another common example is an Appointed Day Order, which sets the date on which an Act of Tynwald comes into force.

UK legislation is usually applied to the Isle of Man by way of secondary legislation. These statutory instruments are known as Orders in Council.

Some secondary legislation requires the approval of Tynwald Court before it comes into force, and some does not. The process to be followed is set out in the primary legislation or enabling Act under which the secondary legislation was made.

Business of Tynwald and the Branches

The main business of the House of Keys and Legislative Council sitting separately is the consideration of primary legislation. The main business of Tynwald Court is policy, finance and secondary legislation, although Tynwald Court also has a role in the enactment of primary legislation. Questions are asked and answered in all three Chambers.

Order Paper and Question Paper

The business of the House is set out in an Order Paper prepared by the Clerk of Tynwald, Secretary of the House of Keys, or the Clerk to the Legislative Council, and issued under the authority of the Presiding Officer. Tynwald Court has a separate Question Paper. Standing Orders determine how far in advance of the sitting the Order Paper must reach Members.

Questions

Members ask Questions to obtain information on a matter of fact. They are addressed to a person who would be expected to have particular knowledge of the subject, usually the Minister for the responsible Department.

Examples of questions include:

The Hon. Member of Council to ask the Chief Minister –

Whether the Government has an Early Years Strategy and, if so, what priority is given by the Government to early years strategy and intervention?

The Hon. Member for Garff to ask the Minister for Education and Children –

What the annual administrative cost to the Department is of collecting data from schools as required by the Education Act 2001?

The Hon. Member for Douglas North to ask the Chief Minister –

What his Government’s policy is in respect of note taking at official meetings between departmental officers and third parties from outside Government?

The Hon Member for Douglas South to ask the Minister for Education -

Whether her Department has set guidelines that apply to schools with regard to the reasons why a pupil can be suspended from school with any recommended period of time for such a suspension?

Members may ask Questions on any almost any matter, and it is here that they have the opportunity to scrutinise the work of Government.  

Submitting a Question

Members may table Questions for Oral or Written Answer. They are submitted on a special form to Table in the Chamber & Information Service of the Clerk of Tynwald’s Office. Questions should be clearly written and must be signed by the Member.

The Clerks examine the notices of Questions closely to ensure that they conform to the rules for asking questions. Should it be necessary, the Clerks will consult the Member regarding the content or wording of any Questions and, where required, matters may be referred to the presiding officer for a decision.

Asking A Question

Members may ask Questions on almost any matter, and it is here that they have the oppotunity to scrutinise the wok of Government. Prior to a sitting all Members receive a copy of the Order Paper and, in the case of a Tynwald sitting, the Question Paper. During the sitting the Questions are taken in the order in which they appear on the Question Paper. For each Question, the Member who submitted the question is called on by the presiding officer. The Member stands and reads out his or her Question.  Once the Question has been asked in this way the presiding officer calls on ‘the Member to reply’, and the Member to whom the Question was addressed will reply.

Once this initial reply has been received, Members may ask supplementary Questions.  Normally the Member who has tabled the Question will be called first to ask a supplementary Question, should they want to.  The number of supplementary Questions permitted following a tabled Question is at the discretion of the presiding officer, otherwise the same guidance rules apply to supplementary Questions as to tabled Questions.

If the Member answering the Question has not included something another Member wants to know, they may stand as the previous speaker concludes to indicate to the presiding officer that they wish to ask a supplementary Question. However, debate is not permitted to flow from this procedure and so Questions must not introduce matters not included in the original Question.

In a normal sitting, there is a set period reserved for oral questions: in the House of Keys, this is one hour; in Tynwald Court, this is two and a half hours. Unless Members agree to suspend Standing Orders, any Questions not reached during this time receive a written answer.

Motions

A motion is a proposal, on any matter of policy or concern, made to the House by a Member. The Member putting forward the motion is known as the mover. A motion should state that Tynwald Court, the House of Keys or Legislative Council do something, order something to be done, or express an opinion with regard to some matter.  It must be phrased in such a way that, if passed, it will represent the judgment or will of the House. 

Motions are tabled in advance and appear on the Order Paper.

Examples of motions include:

The Hon. Member for Michael to move –

That Tynwald calls attention to the case for policies to support economic growth and to promote investment, innovation, technology and infrastructure.

The Minister for Environment, Food & Agriculture to move –

That Tynwald endorses the policy of a renewable energy target of 15% electricity generated from renewable sources by 2015.

The Hon Member for Douglas South to move -

That a Committee of three Members be appointed with powers to take written and oral evidence pursuant to sections 3 and 4 of the Tynwald Proceedings Act 1876, as amended, to investigate the feasibility of having all mobile phones (including pay as you go) issued on Isle of Man networks registered to an identified owner and to report to the October 2010 sitting of Tynwald.

The presiding officer calls on the Member to move the motion. The mover opens the debate by putting forward the reasons for the motion being proposed.  The motion has to be seconded by another Member before it can be debated. Each Member, apart from the mover, may speak only once during each motion being debated so the Member seconding may choose to wait to speak later, in which case he or she would say, ‘I beg to second and reserve my remarks’. Otherwise the Member may second and make a contribution to the debate at that point.

The motion is then debated, concluding with the mover being given the final opportunity to respond to comments made by other Members during the debate. Members finally vote on whether or not the motion should be passed.

How to find out the outcome of a Motion

Debate

Debate gives Members the opportunity to express their opinions about a particular topic. Each Member, apart from the mover, may speak only once in each debate.

Speaking and Conduct in Debate

Members address their remarks to the Presiding Officer. For example in Tynwald Court it is usual to begin speaking with ‘Thank you, Mr/Madam President’ (or in Manx, ‘Gura mie eu, Eaghtyrane’).

Remarks addressed directly to another Member are avoided.  Members are advised to phrase such remarks indirectly, e.g. ‘The Hon. Member must know that he is being foolish’. This rule is applied to maintain courtesy in debate where those debating may hold strong and divergent opinions on often contentious issues.

Whenever the Presiding Officer is about to speak, any Member then speaking or wishing to speak must sit down so that the Presiding Officer may be heard without interruption.

Members may not use offensive words against Tynwald or either Branch, or in reference to any person. No Member is permitted to use the name of the Sovereign or the Governor irreverently in debate or with the object of influencing the Court in its deliberations. 

The Presiding Officer may caution any Member who speaks irreverently or repetitively. If this caution is ignored, the Presiding Officer may instruct the Member to stop speaking.

Voting in the Chambers

At the end of a debate all Members present in the Chamber are required to vote on whether or not they are in favour. The Presiding Officer is the only exception – he or she has no vote at this stage. 

Most decisions are made using an oral vote. The presiding officer ask Members to indicate verbally whether they are in favour of the motion (‘those in favour say aye’) or against the motion (‘those against say no’), allowing a pause each time for Members to respond.  Members all respond together saying Aye or No, depending on their view. The presiding officer judges which is the strongest response and states that either ‘the ayes have it’ or ‘the noes have it’.  If a Member wishes the matter to be put to a recorded vote, he or she may request a division by calling ‘Divide’.  This must be done before the presiding officer repeats his or her judgment for the second time.  

Divide!

If a division is successfully called in Tynwald Court or the House of Keys, an electronic vote is taken. Each Member votes using the buttons found on the desk in front of their seat. Once all Members have voted the Clerk electronically concludes the vote and the result, which displays the vote of each Member, is shown on a screen in the Chamber. The Presiding Officer then announces the result of the division.  In the Legislative Council a called vote is taken, where each Member states whether he or she is voting for or against. The Clerk of the Legislative Council records this information and the presiding officer then announces the result of the division.   

Aye or No?

After each sitting, the results of electronic votes and whether motions were carried or lost are published in Hansard and Votes and Proceedings. You can also find out the results of votes using the Business Search and the Parliamentary Data pages.

Other Business

 Tynwald Court has a varied business.

Financial business

Tynwald Court is responsible for approving the financial business of the Isle of Man Government. This includes the levying of taxes, approving the annual budget, and money for specific purposes which are not included in the department budgets, for example:

The Minister for Education to move –

That Tynwald approves of the Department of Education incurring expenditure not exceeding £29,668,698 on the "St Ninian's Lower School, Bemahague" scheme.

Financial business is put on the Order Paper as a motion.

Petitions and memorials

Members of the public have the right to petition Tynwald. There are four different ways in which they can do this.

Petitions for Redress (of Grievance) may be presented on Tynwald Day at the foot of Tynwald Hill. They are intended for matters of public interest arising from an individual case that other avenues for redress have been unable to resolve.

Public Petitions and Private Petitions may be presented in any of the three Chambers. While Public Petitions must be presented by a Member, Private Petitions may be presented by the petitioner or a representative. Public Petitions are intended for matters affecting the general public, while Private Petitions are intended for private matters that require the approval or sanction of Tynwald, often a Private Bill.

Memorials may be presented in all three Chambers by anyone whose private interests may be adversely affected by a motion on the Order Paper or a Bill. It is presented by the memorialist.

Other Papers and Documents

Many kinds of documents are presented to Tynwald.  They range from annual reports of agencies of Government to statutory rules.  Papers may be presented pursuant to statute, at the discretion of a Member, or by order of the Court.  Papers presented to Tynwald are laid by the Clerk of Tynwald and recorded in the Votes and Proceedings.  A copy of each paper to be laid before Tynwald is supplied to every Member electronically.  All papers and documents when presented to the Court are considered public.  They are available from the Tynwald Library and via the hyperlinked Order Paper.

Statements

Ministers may make statements concerning Government policy or other matters for which they bear a responsibility.  Members may ask Questions arising from the statement.