How late is too late for a Tynwald motion?

With the horse tram motion not on May's Tynwald order paper, we look at how items are submitted to the parliament

May's Tynwald order paper has now been published, and there's one notable absence - a motion on the future of the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway.

In March, the Island's parliament unanimously backed calls for the Department of Infrastructure to bring forward a business case in full to the May sitting.

Since the four-week Register of Business deadline passed just over a fortnight ago, concern from those who've campaigned for the restoration of the track between Broadway and the Sea Terminal grew that it would miss this month's sitting.

But just what does a missed deadline mean in Tynwald? And could we still see members debate the horse trams this month?

The Register of Business

Introduced at the start of the current administration, the Register of Business is a section of Tynwald's website where items due to be debated in the future are published.

It was hoped by publishing reports, motions, orders and any other business well in advance of a sitting, it would lead to better debate, with members - as well as the public - having more time to ask questions, raise concerns and form an opinion on what the item is proposing.

Previously, members of the public would only see what was coming up in the sitting when the order paper was published (typically around 12 days before the sitting gets underway).

6 weeks, 4 weeks or 2 weeks?

When the Register of Business first came into force, items had to be submitted at least six weeks before the sitting, but this has since been cut to four following concerns that the deadline was excessive.

But, there's another deadline to keep in mind if you're submitting a Tynwald motion; the order paper deadline.

If you miss the RoB deadline, you can still submit a motion for the next sitting, and it will be on the order paper as long as its filed two weeks before Tynwald sits.

You will need the court to agree to take this motion, as members can refuse to debate an item that hasn't completed four weeks on the register.

The majority of motions on the order paper that haven't completed the necessary time on the register have been taken over the last five years, but the court does have the right to object. In March last year the then-Treasury Minister Alex Allinson was denied the opportunity to ask for a supplementary vote to cover a healthcare overspend. While backbenchers raised a number of concerns, the reason they were able to block the motion from even being debated was because it hadn't been published more than 4 weeks earlier.

Had the Department of Infrastructure submitted a motion in the two weeks since the register deadline passed, it seems unlikely (though not guaranteed - few things are in Tynwald!) members would refuse to take it; they unanimously backed the amended version of Sarah Maltby's horse tram motion in March (which itself went ahead having not completed 4 weeks in the register), so is there is a clear political appetite to have this conversation.

Supplementary Order Paper

There is still one option available to the DoI; a supplementary order paper. This is exactly what it sounds like - an extra order paper published after the main one, usually with items that can't wait until next month.

At the President's discretion, supplementary order papers can be put forward at any time; it's not unheard of to see such documents put forward while a sitting is underway.

However, it's up to members whether they want to consider the supplementary paper or not, and we have seen members unhappy with late notice on a number of occasions in this administration, perhaps most notably with the Island Plan in January 2022. The court's refusal to take the supplementary paper on that occasion saw government have to ask for an extraordinary sitting of Tynwald for the plan to be considered once members had had more time to look over the document.

Given that the DoI will be putting forward a business case on the horse trams, it's likely members will want adequate time to scrutinise the proposals before taking part in a debate, so a last-minute supplementary order paper may not be favourable.

So just when will we see the business case? Well, Mrs Maltby will be asking the treasury and infrastructure ministers for an update in Tuesday's sitting of the House of Keys, which you'll be able to follow coverage of live on Manx Radio.