A message from the Lord of Mann will get proceedings under way in both the House of Keys and the Legislative Council today.

Her Majesty the Queen, as she is sometimes also known, delivers an annual Commonwealth Day message it is with those words that each sitting will commence.

A relatively short question time in the House of Keys will have a familiar feel to it.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) and his party leader, the former health minister Kate Beecroft (LibVannin, Douglas South) will place her successor David Ashford under more scrutiny.

They want to know how the implementation of recommendations contained in a service quality review are going, how the governance of health and care services is being ensured and why the adult social care division has moved.

The only other question for oral answer comes from Jason Moorhouse (Arbory, Castletown and Malew), who will ask Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas what research has been carried out into gender pay equality in the island.

Several questions have been tabled for written answer, covering issues such as the collapse of the Louis Group, government funding of the Isle of Man Children’s Centre and the percentage of pupils at each primary school who went on to university.

Further debate on the Abortion Reform Bill will dominate the rest of today’s sitting, but before that the Anti-Money Laundering and Other Financial Crime (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill - which pretty much does what it says on the tin - is down for a second reading, when its principle will be considered.

The Central Registry Bill, which will establish a central registry and transfer some functions from the registrar general and the Treasury, is scheduled for its clauses stage, once the abortion debate is done.

All being well, the Legislative Council will see the swearing-in of five new members, on the proviso that yesterday’s voting process was successful in appointing five MLCs. That hasn’t always been a given in the past.

It should first be noted that, for this sitting, proceedings are scheduled to get underway at 9.30am, rather than the usual 10.30am.

The new MLCs’ first job will be to take a look at the Airports and Civil Aviation (Amendment) Bill and the Data Protection Bill, which both arrive from the House of Keys for a first reading.

Both bills are pieces of enabling legislation to ensure the Isle of Man keeps up to date with international obligations.

But we’re confident they knew that already.