Big changes to court rules on evidence will be debated in the House of Keys today (Tuesday).

It could mean that text messages will become admissible as evidence in cases.

The Criminal Evidence Bill is due a second reading - when its principles will come under scrutiny - having already been through the Legislative Council.

That the bill started in the upper chamber has already led to concerns from some MHKs about legislation of such importance going through the scrutiny of unelected MLCs before arriving in the House of Keys.

Part of the reason for that, however, was because of the fact the Attorney General John Quinn sits in Legislative Council. Mr Quinn warned that without the change in the law, the island could become a haven for drug dealers.

The proposed law change follows a court case in which a defence team argued that text messages constituted ’hearsay’ - and inadmissible as evidence - unless the sender was actually called. The Bill aims to rectify that.

Once that is out of the way Chief Minister Howard Quayle will move the third reading of the Brexit Bill (see page four).

After last week, he may well have been on a crash course about when is a good time to quote Tynwald standing orders to support an argument and how to make sure that, when you do, you quote the right one.

There’s a familiar air to question time. Kate Beecroft (LibVannin, Douglas South) has more questions about the chief secretary’s role in communicating with the UK Government. This will be the third time she has raised the issue in the Keys, to add to her initial questions in Tynwald.

Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan will come under more scrutiny about whether his department has done enough to ensure everyone knows about changes to pension ages, with questions from Jason Moorhouse (Arbory, Castletown and Malew), including a call to give a guarantee no pension will be stopped without speaking to individuals concerned.

Education Minister Graham Cregeen will be asked whether there are plans to centralise any services or operations to University College Isle of Man.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey), who has been collating data on planning breaches through written questions, will bring the subject up during oral question time.

The written question paper, in places, looks more like a collection of essays, such is the length of some of the questions. A 132-word sentence is a particular favourite.

Subjects covered include planning matters, the much-maligned Enterprise Development Scheme, school inspections and the public sector housing waiting list.

The Legislative Council has just the one piece of legislation to deal with this week, the Payment of Members’ Expenses (Amendment) Bill. It prevents Tynwald members who are suspended from being able to claim expenses.