Chief Minister Howard Quayle has refused to rule out scrapping the Department of Home Affairs.

The department, headed by Minister Bill Malarkey MHK, is responsible for the police, probation and fire services, along with government’s communications division.

Mr Quayle’s revelation came in a Tynwald discussion about the principle of appointing a minister responsible for justice - and when that appointment would take place.

He said he hoped to make an announcement ’soon’.

It was important to have in place the correct supporting structure, he added, and that was part of a larger piece of work that ’represents some very wide-ranging changes’.

Speaker Juan Watterson - a former home affairs minister - asked Mr Quayle if he was ’actively considering abolishing the Department of Home Affairs’.

Mr Quayle said: ’The Council of Ministers is considering all options in relation to this and I hope to be able to report very soon.’

Mr Watterson pressed Mr Quayle further: ’So the Chief Minister won’t rule out the fact that he is considering such an abolition?’

Mr Quayle again declined the opportunity to quash such speculation, saying: ’When you are looking at something as important as this, you don’t rule out anything.’

The issue arose after Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) tabled a question asking what progress had been made on appointing a minister responsible for justice.

Mr Hooper said that, since the principle had been approved by Tynwald, other resolutions on the likes of climate change and the health service had seen greater progress. ’The criminal justice system as a fundamental bedrock of a free, democratic society should be getting the same sort of priority,’ he said.

Mr Quayle agreed but added: ’It is very important that we carefully consider the full ramifications.’

Others asked for assurances the judicial system would remain separate from the political side of government.

Mr Quayle agreed it should.