MHKs have approved a radical change to way parliamentary debates are conducted.

The House of Keys overwhelmingly voted in support a recommendation that legislative business can be interrupted to allow the whole House to sit as a committee.

Education Minister Graham Cregeen (Arbory, Castletown and Malew), a member of the standing orders committee which came up with the recommendation, explained: ’Particularly during consideration of a clauses stage, there have often been times when I have felt that it would be helpful to be able to discuss a particular clause or an idea in greater detail than the rules currently allow.

’A committee of the whole House would allow us to do just that.’

Having a committee-style discussion would mean there are fewer or no restrictions on the number of times members may speak, which allows more scope for discussion and examination, he said.

But DEFA Minister Geoffrey Boot (Glenfaba and Peel) warned: ’Even under this system, some debates can take several hours.

’Can you imagine what it would be like if at a whim - and that is the way the motion reads - with a motion with no notice, for he House to turn itself into a committee and then take evidence - from whom? Are we going to have people on standby? Are we going to have to wait for them to arrive? I dread to think where this could lead in terms of the time it could take to debate.’

Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas (Douglas Central) described it as an ’excellent initiative’. He said if the Keys sitting as a committee wanted to take evidence it should give reasonable notice so government officials would not have to be ’hanging around in the gallery waiting to be called upon at any moment’.

Health and Social Care Minister Kate Beecroft (LibVan, Douglas South) said she thought the move would make for better legislation. ’And that is what we are here for. We are not here to decide, "Oh, we don’t want it because it’s going to take too long",’ she said.

Mrs Beecroft said she hoped the standing orders committee would take a look at the idea of pre-legislative committees, as used in Southern Ireland, in which an item goes to committee before it come to the branches of parliament.

David Ashford (Douglas North) said it was a ’great way forward’, that would ’actually expedite business’. Responding to Mr Boot’s concerns about having a committee of 24, he said: ’The House of Commons has a committee of 650, and the world has not caved in!

’As for the idea that this will be done on a whim, well, at the end of the day, a vote to move into committee requires a vote of this House, or a vote of Tynwald. So it is hardly going to be done on a whim - there has got to be majority support amongst members.’

Twenty-three MHKs voted in support of the measure with only Mr Boot voting against.