The island should have a new deputy chief constable in place in 2021, according to the Department for Home Affairs.

Chief Constable Gary Roberts is due to retire in 2022 and the plan is to appoint a deputy to shadow him in the year leading up to him leaving the post.

The role is not a new one, it had existed until Mr Roberts took over six years ago.

A DHA spokesman said: ’The post of deputy chiefcConstable has been vacant since the current Chief Constable took up the post in 2013.

’He has preferred to operate a command structure which gives functional responsibility across the force to three superintendents who deputise for the Chief Constable when he is absent from the island.

’The Department of Home Affairs’ current thinking is that around 2021, the role would be advertised to allow a potential successor to the Chief Constable to begin shadowing the existing incumbent ahead of Gary Roberts’ retirement in 2022.’

Mr Roberts is the first Manxman to hold the position having served his entire career in the island.