NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE
To its credit the Isle of Man Government has a thorough system of public consultation in place.
With that in mind I’ve addressed some questions to Chief Secretary Will Greenhow about the level and extent of public consultation prior to government Departments and agencies signing the agreement with Manx Gas.
It will be interesting to see if such consultation did take place and if so if the public and Manx Gas consumers were left in no doubt that this was a ‘write your own tariffs agreement’ that Manx Gas were being given.
The letter to Mr Greenhow is set out below:
“Mr Will Greenhow,
Chief Secretary
Isle of Man Government
Government Buildings
Prospect Hill
Douglas
23rd November 2015
Dear Mr Greenhow,
I refer to the agreement of the 24th of April 2015 entered into between the OFT, the Treasury, Department of Economic Development and Manx Gas.
I also refer to the Government CODE OF PRACTICE ON CONSULATIONS.
I have looked at the Government Departments/Manx Gas agreement and can find no reference to public consultation taking place prior to the agreement?
If no public consultation was undertaken and it was felt by the parties it was not required then I would imagine that (in line with the introduction to the Code) this will be documented in minutes of the various government parties. For convenience I set out the relevant section below;
“Although the Code is designed for use with primary legislation, the Council of Ministers endorses the use of the Code as a template for best practice by Departments, Boards and Offices when considering major policy decisions where consultation may be appropriate.
“If consultation is not felt to be appropriate or cannot be carried out in accordance with the Code, then it is expected that the reasons for this will be documented in, for example, a Report to, or a Minute of, a Department meeting.”
If I am in error here and have missed the consultation(s) could you furnish me with a copy?
Alternatively if there was no public consultation could you forward a copy of the relevant minutes of the THREE government agencies or Departments where it was determined it was not appropriate to conduct a consultation?
Finally, I note the section in the Manx Gas agreement ‘RECITALS (C)’ where COMIN authorise OFT and Treasury to negotiate with Manx Gas. Was there perhaps consultation on this? If so could you furnish a copy of the outcome? Again if COMIN determined there was no need for consultation is that documented?
Yours sincerely
J B Moffatt (Mr)
Director of Information”
A copy of the Manx Government/Manx Gas agreement can be found here:
https://www.gov.im/lib/docs/oft/gasregulationagreementfinalwebsi.pdf
BERNARD MOFFATT
Issued by: The Celtic News
23/11/15
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