Tynwald members were called back for an extraordinary sitting on Tuesday to approve Brexit measures.

Last week they refused to rubber-stamp the EU trade measures after they were given barely 24 hours to read a document of 351 pages, which was issued in the middle of a sitting.

Environment Minister Geoffrey Boot conceded the difficult position he had put members in when he sought approval for the measures last week.

’I would like to acknowledge that members did not have sufficient time to scrutinise the Brexit-related legislation laid before them last week and for that I apologise,’ he said on Tuesday

In response to concerns, his department held a drop-in session on Monday of this week to help explain the legislation.

’The regulations have been drafted as a consequence of my department’s ongoing preparations for the island’s trading relationships with the UK, EU and rest of the world following the end of the transitional period.

’The regulations ensure that the island maintains its legislative alignment with the UK and the EU in the crucial areas of animal health and food standards.’

By approving the regulations, he said, it meant the island could honour assurances given that it that it had retained and modified EU law in order for it receive ’third-country’ status.

’Such third-country status is necessary to enable the continued export of the island’s animals, animal product, food and fish,’ he said.

’Without the regulations we could not demonstrate our alignment and valuable trade with the UK and EU would be jeopardised.’

The tight timescale was due to the need to incorporate recently published UK regulations.

Mr Boot said the situation on Brexit legislation was ’fluid’, but the island must have third country status confirmed at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed in December.

That meant Tynwald needed to approve the regulations - specifying 84 items of EU legislation fore retention in Manx law and removing 154 legislative items that have expired or are no longer relevant - and for them to be published by tomorrow (Friday).

The regulations also set out modifications to more than 100 pieces of retained EU legislation to ensure they work after the UK finally leaves Europe.

Approving the regulations, he said, would put the island on a ’surer legislative footing ahead of the end of the transition period’ at the end of the year.

But he warned there was no guarantee that further legislation would not be required.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) asked whether the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture had the resources to keep up to date with Brexit-related legislation and maintain the island’s trading relationships.

Speaker Juan Watterson agreed and called for a ’simpler way’ to implement necessary changes relevant to the Isle of Man.

Mr Boot said resources ’would appear to be adequate at the moment’ but it would depend on what happened in the future.

Last week the Keys voted 11-11 on the regulations, while the Legislative Council was narrowly in favour. This week, they were given unanimous approval.