The Council of Ministers has not formally considered a high-profile Bloomberg Businessweek investigation into the Isle of Man's online gambling sector, despite its international attention and criticism of the island's regulatory regime.

Chief Minister Alfred Cannan confirmed the position during Tuesday's Tynwald sitting after Douglas East MHK Joney Faragher asked whether ministers had discussed the article and what action, if any, had been taken in response.

The article also referred to Mr Cannan and his former links to a recruitment firm that had business dealings with the company at the centre of the investigation

Responding to Ms Faragher's question, Mr Cannan said: ‘The Council of Ministers considers a wide range of matters as part of its weekly meeting and routinely receives information and discusses matters of national and international relevance as part of its ongoing business.

‘However, in the interests of transparency and openness, I can confirm the Bloomberg Businessweek article is not the subject of formal consideration by the Council of Ministers following its publication.’

He added that members would be aware ‘there is a large and complex criminal investigation that is currently taking place.’

Ms Faragher then asked whether ministers had considered commissioning an independent inquiry into the government's own role, including its regulation, supervision and decision-making, rather than focusing solely on the actions of private companies.

Mr Cannan replied that such a proposal had not been formally considered.

He said the government's current position was that the criminal investigation should be allowed to ‘run its course’ so that ‘facts can come out in a public arena’ through the judicial process.

He added: ‘I'm sure that at some point there will be interest in further establishing what the government's processes were in terms of the overall case.’

Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse later asked whether the government had considered issuing a response to provide ‘a level of balance’ to what he described as ‘a very powerful report’.

Mr Cannan said he believed the island could ‘be proud of its criminal response once it had been made aware of the full scale of what had been going on’, but stressed he would not say anything that could jeopardise ongoing proceedings.

Ms Faragher argued that a criminal investigation and an independent inquiry into government policy were separate issues and could run alongside one another.

When she pressed the Chief Minister on what was preventing such an inquiry, he replied simply: ‘A criminal investigation, that's what's preventing it.’

Mr Cannan responded that any future inquiry did not necessarily have to be government-led and suggested Tynwald itself could establish a select committee.

He said: ‘It's ridiculous to think that a Chief Minister or a Council of Ministers is going to start a national inquiry six or seven days before effectively the end of this government and we move into an election period.’

Following the sitting, Ms Faragher defended her questioning in a statement on social media, saying the public deserved confidence that ‘when significant concerns are raised about Government's own actions, those concerns will be examined openly, independently and transparently’.

She added: ‘That's why I believe an independent inquiry should be seriously considered.’