Alex McQuarrie – June 2017:
It has been a very interesting
and vibrant month in the Clerk of Tynwald’s Office. With Tynwald Day creeping
ever closer, staff have been busy making sure that everything is in place for
the smooth running of the event on July 5th.
Throughout this month I have been
carrying on with a number of the projects that have already been mentioned. I
have continued to work on the consultation and Bill project that will allow the
public to view the life-cycle of a Bill on an easily accessible webpage. The
main task at the moment is to collect different parts of the same consultations
and group them together, which will then allow them to be easily uploaded to
the public webpage. I have also been introduced to some new tasks this month,
where I have been posting the Tynwald electronic votes on our parliamentary data webpage. The Annual Parliamentary Report is
published in autumn, and I have been working on some procedures to help
simplify the publishing process for that.
On 20th June, Tynwald opened a debate on Lord Lisvane’s report on the functioning of Tynwald. Lord Lisvane’s report offered various recommendations on changes that could be made to the functioning of our Parliament, and it was fascinating to listen in on these discussions, which can be heard with our listen again function here. Tynwald voted to establish the Select Committee on the Functioning of Tynwald which will report on a number of the recommendations. Click here to learn more about the Committee.
The Social Affairs Policy Review
Committee (SAPRC) has been very active this month on important matters that concern the
island population. On 23rd June the Committee heard oral evidence
from members of the public, island charities, the police, and the Department of Health and Social Care on the
provision of mental ill health on the island, which can be listened to here. On 29th
June, the Committee then heard oral evidence regarding the consolidation of
endoscopy services at Noble’s Hospital. The Committee heard evidence from Dr Andrew Kelsey, Chairman of the Ramsey and District Cottage Hospital Welfare Fund, and
Leonard Singer, Chairman of the Ramsey Cottage Hospital League of Friends,
which can be listened to here. As
Assistant Clerk to the SAPRC, I was busy making arrangements for these oral
evidence sessions, and was fascinated to listen in on the discussions of these
issues.
As always, I have given various
tours of the Legislative Buildings this month both to tourists and to school
students and it’s fair to say that I never tire of sharing the story of our
historic parliament with any visitors!