The House of Keys will return to more routine matters when it sits today (Tuesday), following the drama of last week.

The Abortion Reform Bill, which was granted a second reading before a packed public gallery, is not up for further scrutiny yet.

In fact, the only legislation due to be considered is the Data Protection Bill, which will enable the Manx Government to apply EU data protection rules here by placing orders for approval, rather than having to write a new bill every time.

Strictly speaking, it is down for a first reading only, which is when the bill is formally placed before the House of Keys, but no debate takes place.

However, Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas will seek to suspend standing orders to allow the second reading to take place, so the general principles can be debated. As well as the necessity to ensure the Isle of Man is in a position to stay up to date with international obligations, it is possible Mr Thomas is mindful that, when the Abortion Reform Bill does return to the Keys, it is going to take up a lot of MHKs’ time.

There are significantly fewer questions tabled for today’s sitting compared with last week. The generous view will be that the second sitting of the year - last week - was possibly the first occasion when MHKs had had a full run-up, rather than that members are aware there may be fewer eyes upon them today.

The issues to be raised include mortgage relief, the terms of reference on the recently commissioned independent review of health service funding and services, the definition of poverty, the application of financial directives, whether the island has a data strategy and how the education budget is distributed.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) will also ask Mr Thomas whether he has ’any plans to better align maternity and paternity leave, to introduce shared leave, or to introduce statutory maternity or paternity pay’.

Expect the words ’Equality Act’ to make an appearance during that interaction, probably more than once.

The Legislative Council, following last week’s sitting, is due to take the second reading and clauses stages of both the Credit Unions (Amendment) Bill and the Safeguarding Bill.