MacDonald Flag(Tynwald Flag)
The official flag of Tynwald is normally flown on Tynwald Day and outside the Legislative Buildings in Douglas. The idea for the flag came from the ancient arms of the Lords of Mann, which depicted a ship with sails furled. This emblem had also been used on notes and coins. In 1971, the flag was adopted by the Tynwald Arrangements Committee to represent the parliament and its Viking past.
Contact Details
Ian Faulds
Senior Hansard Editor
Clerk of Tynwald's Office
Legislative Buildings
Douglas
Isle of Man
IM1 3PW
Tel:+44 (0) 1624 685513
Fax:+44 (0) 1624 685504
Email:
i.faulds@tynwald.org.im
Website:
http://www.tynwald.org.im
Isle of Man
Tynwald, Isle of Man
Office of the Official Report (Hansard)
Dating back over 1,000 years to the time of the Vikings, the High Court of Tynwald is the oldest parliament in the world in continuous existence and the only tricameral parliament in the Commonwealth.
Tynwald has two branches: the lower 24-member House of Keys, directly elected by the people of the Island; and the upper Legislative Council, of which 8 members are indirectly elected and 3 sit ex officio. These two branches sit separately each Tuesday (except when Tynwald sits as a body) to consider primary legislation for the Island. Questions are also tabled to Government members and ministers, and answered in either oral or written form.
Once a month, the House of Keys and the Legislative Council come together to sit as Tynwald Court, in Douglas, where members approve secondary legislation, and keep a check on Government activity, through oral and written questioning and policy debate. Sittings can continue for up to three days, including evenings, and the proceedings are broadcast live on local radio.
On 5th July, Tynwald Day, members and the public meet in the open air at St John's. As a legal requirement, Acts passed during the parliamentary year are promulgated to the people from Tynwald Hill in both English and Manx Gaelic. There is also an ancient right to petition Tynwald on this special day for redress of individual grievances: such petitions are presented at the foot of the Hill, to be taken on, as appropriate, by select committees.
There are several standing committees for the three chambers and select committees are regularly set up to investigate specific issues.
The Office of the Official Report (Hansard), within the Clerk of Tynwald's Office, is therefore kept very busy, providing the important service of verbatim reports for all three chambers and also reporting any sessions of oral evidence taken in the committees.
The Hansard section currently consists of five members of staff, whose work focuses mainly on recording and logging sittings, checking and editing the text and finalising the reports using DTP. A team of self-employed home transcribers produces the initial draft text. At busy times, the process is also aided by a freelance home editor.
The final Hansard reports are published both in hard copy and on the Tynwald website, www.tynwald.org.im. The team aims to achieve this within a week of each sitting; however, in practice, the ebb and flow of parliamentary business means it is difficult to maintain a fixed schedule.
To help resolve this problem, Tynwald's Hansard staff expect to be the first in the British Isles to launch new and innovative digital technology, enabling them not only to increase the speed of production, but also to rise to other challenges of the 21st century which lie ahead.
