Chief Minister Allan Bell MHK says he is looking forward to the contributions from Members when Tynwald has the opportunity to discuss the Scope of Government reports at its June sitting next week.
 
Mr Bell will move that Tynwald notes that the Council of Ministers has received and is considering the two reports, and that views on them from Tynwald Members and the public are welcome.
 
The Chief Minister explained: ‘I am bringing this motion to give Tynwald Members an opportunity to express their initial views on the acceptability or otherwise of the proposals from the independent Scope of Government review team.
 
‘The Council of Ministers is making no recommendations at this stage, but we do want to hear what Members and the wider public think before we decide the way forward. The reports raise fundamental questions about the role and size of Government in the Isle of Man and it is important that these issues are thoroughly aired over the coming months.’
 
The Chief Minister added that he looked forward to hearing the views of the public on the Scope of Government, among any other issues the audience wished to raise, at the next Council of Ministers community meeting. The meeting takes place at the Centenary Centre in Peel at 7.30 pm on Tuesday June 26.
 
A revised Scope of Government report was published last month, having been updated at the Chief Minister’s request by the independent review team which produced the original Scope and Structure of Government study in 2006.
 
The review team said their recommendations to reduce the range of services provided directly by Government had been made ‘even more relevant and necessary’ by the substantial revenue reductions that had occurred since their first report.
 
They restated their conclusion that some services should be contracted out to external operators or ‘corporatised’ i.e. run on a more commercial basis by Government-owned companies.
 
The review team called again for local government to be restructured so that local authorities could take on services devolved from central Government, and for the creation of a ‘Department of Corporate Development’ or other initiative to drive change within Government.
 
The review team also produced a supplementary report, at the invitation of the Chief Minister, commenting on Government’s budgetary rebalancing strategy and the potential for major cost savings.
 
Both reports can be found on the Isle of Man Government website at http://www.gov.im/cso/ministers/