A study visit to Tynwald has been hailed ‘a valuable learning opportunity’ by Claire Law, deputy clerk and PA to the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland Islands.

Claire Law, deputy clerk of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly and Tamika McAuley-Christopher, UKOTP programme officer

Ms Law was part of a delegation of UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) clerks who took part in a two-day capacity-building programme organised by the Clerk of Tynwald’s Office. Other UKOTs represented were the Anguilla House of Assembly; the House of Assembly of the British Virgin Islands: the Parliament of the Cayman Islands; the Montserrat Legislative Assembly; the Legislative Council of St Helena; and the Turks and Caicos House of Assembly. Ahead of coming to the Isle of Man the delegates attended a study visit in Westminster.

The visits form part of the UK Overseas Territories Project (UKOTP) to strengthen good governance and oversight of public finances in the UKOTs, delivered by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) UK.

Ms Law said: ‘I was appointed deputy clerk just three and a half months ago, so to have this learning opportunity and meet clerks from other UK Overseas Territories at such an early stage in my role has been invaluable. It was good to see how Westminster works, but also to study another, smaller, parliament. The programme has been extremely beneficial from a CPD perspective and, with so many meetings and workshops being conducted virtually these days, to be able to speak to and learn from clerks face-to-face has been extremely useful and will help me to support officers and Members.

‘We may come from different jurisdiction with different processes, but there is common ground and there are opportunities to work collaboratively.

‘The general public don’t really understand what parliamentary clerks do. There is, however, a lot of interest in local politics. It’s been interesting, therefore, to see what’s on the Tynwald website and to learn how Hansard operates, given that our focus is to make our records more accessible and, in so doing, to promote the Falklands Islands.’

UKOTP programme officer Tamika McAuley-Christopher said: ‘There’s a lot of interest right now among clerks to develop their governance support skills, so this is our priority in what is phase two of the project, which has about a year and a half to run. I was therefore pleased that out of the nine legislatures with whom we’re currently working, seven have been able to visit Westminster and Tynwald on this occasion, because our key objective is capacity building through peer-to-peer learning.’

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For further information contact:

Joann Corkish
Deputy Clerk of Tynwald
Legislative Buildings
Douglas
IM1 3PW
Tel: 01624 685500
j.corkish@tynwald.org.im