Progress on addressing the legacy pensions issue has been slower than hoped, the Policy and Reform Minister admitted in Tynwald yesterday.

But Chris Thomas said significant progress had been made in other areas of public sector pensions reform.

Changes to the Government Unified Scheme approved by Tynwald in February have now been implemented, he said, reforms to the police pension scheme are imminent and there are ongoing talks with the teaching unions and judiciary over changes to their respective schemes.

Issues and options to address the legacy funding gap - the spiralling cost of pension payments to public sector workers who have already retired, currently £44.9m but forecast to rise to £96.4m in 2034-35 - were due to be put to this month’s Tynwald sitting.

But Mr Thomas told members that progress on developing options to address the legacy issue had been ’slower than we would have wished’.

He explained: ’Detailed work could not commence until after the 2016 valuation of schemes had been completed by the actuaries, which was only in early June 2017.

’This is an extremely technical piece of work. It requires detailed actuarial input in order to be as precise as possible on the implications of the options being explored.

’Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible for this work to be concluded for consideration by the Council of Ministers in order to produce a final report and options for debate in Tynwald.

Mr Thomas said he hoped options to address the legacy position would available for consideration by Tynwald early in 2018.