The new Council of Ministers may be forced to produce a set of policies by the end of November.
Tynwald will be asked to approve a motion from Douglas Central MHK and Chief Minister candidate Chris Thomas demanding the Council of Ministers produces, by the end of November, a document for debate that sets out “current challenges and opportunities”.
And the second part calls for a “prioritised policy agenda, action plan and legislative programme to address them”. It would be reviewed and revised each year and put down for debate and approval each October.
The latter section appears to be a move back to staging an annual policy debate.
Political Event to Match Budget
Under the original incarnations of Council of Ministers, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, an Isle of Man Government Policy Report was produced for annual debate and approval.
Known widely as the “Poldoc” it was in effect a blueprint for all of CoMin’s plans for the year ahead and beyond.
Its publication and debate was a political event to match the Budget, partly because the report’s release and the subsequent debate, originally, would take place in October, following the summer recess.
It was the kick-start to the parliamentary year and produced heated and lengthy debates on many occasions
Over time, the Poldoc publication and debate diluted into something that was no longer all-encompassing.
Island Plan
Most recently, while there has been an Island Plan, updated periodically, separate departments also produced individual action plans to go before Tynwald.
The Island Plan, originally branded as a five-year road map, was first debated in February 2022. The government had wanted the debate in January but was outvoted and forced to delay it following opposition from Tynwald members.
This was because the report was hurried onto a supplementary agenda for the January sitting, having missed the normal deadline.
Further debates on revised versions of the report took place in January 2023, March 2024 and March 2025. But there was no debate during the final parliamentary year of the previous Tynwald, 2025-2026.
Debate on Proposal
Tynwald will debate the proposal by Thomas at its sitting on October 20, by which time the Isle of Man should know who the Chief Minister is.
The other candidate for the Chief Minister posiition is Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Kirrie Jenkins.
Last week the two went head-to-head in a hustings meeting before MHKs.
Should Thomas be successful in his bid, then he would not necessarily need to seek Tynwald approval to bring in his idea as it would already be within his power to do it regardless. But he might choose to do so to ensure that it remains in future.
