A new rate for the non-compulsory living wage is expected to be announced soon.

Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas revealed the plan during a House of Keys row with Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) over when government would ensure all agency staff it employed earned the living wage rate of £8.61 per hour.

The living wage rate is higher than the mandatory minimum wage, which is £7.85 for over-18s, but it is not compulsory on employers. The government has made a commitment to ensuring all its directly employed staff are paid the living wage, but that has yet to cover workers it users through agencies.

Asked by Mr Hooper about when that would change, Mr Thomas said government had a contract with agencies for administrative and secretarial staff, primarily for short-term cover, and it was being ’examined as part of the ongoing management of the contract’.

He added: ’The Isle of Man living wage is scheduled to be uprated in April 2019 and at that point the Cabinet Office will be in a position to assess the cost implications of modifying the contract and to determine how to take the matter forward.’

Other agency workers with government, such as doctors, nurses and teachers, were on a pay scale already above the living wage rate.

Mr Hooper accused the minister of not giving a direct answer.

’Does he not believe that all workers working for government are entitled to equitable treatment?’ he asked, calling for a specific date for.

The minister countered that the Department for Enterprise, of which Mr Hooper was a member, was responsible for employment law and that the island did not have the same regulations to protect agency workers as exist in the UK.

He challenged Mr Hooper that if he ’wants to take forward that legislation â?¦ please do’.

As the pair continued to lock horns, Speaker Juan Watterson - perhaps taking his lead from the sharp-tongued insults of John Bercow in Westminster - issued a put down to the minister after one response.

Mr Watterson remarked: ’It does somewhat demonstrate that the length of an oral answer is inversely proportional to its usefulness.’

While this drew laughter from some quarters, Mr Thomas did not appear over-impressed at this jibe from the supposedly impartial presiding officer. However, he did afterwards say he considered politicians were ’fair game’ for criticism.