With Tynwald Day coming up, the list of Acts to be promulgated on Tynwald Day has now been published. Five Acts will be read.

By customary law, an Act of Tynwald did not become law until after it had been promulgated – that is, read in full in both English and Manx from Tynwald Hill. This was not always on Tynwald Day however – of the 89 Acts promulgated in the 1700s, for instance, only 46 were promulgated on Tynwald Day. The amount of information that had to be read out was reduced by statute during the 19th century. By the late 19th century Lieutenant-Governors had become reluctant to promulgate other than on Tynwald Day; which obviously made the delay between a measure receiving Royal Assent and being capable of becoming law potentially substantial. Initially introduced as an emergency provision during World War One, since 1916 Acts of Tynwald have become law upon receiving Royal Assent, although unless promulgated within 18 months, the Act will later lapse. The detail is now governed by the Legislation Act 2015 s.8-16.

Five Acts for an 18 month period does not seem a very large number, which raises the question – are there fewer new Acts of Tynwald than there used to be? Before answering that, a few caveats.

Firstly, the structure of Acts has changed consideably over the centuries. For instance a single Act promulgated in 1661 covered civil actions for debt, inheritance rights, taking of turf and ling at night, and punishing provoking words and batteries with fines. A modern Act would be unlikely to cover so many unrelated issues in a single piece of legislation. So taking too long a view on this question could be misleading. Secondly, any quantitative approach to legislation, while increasingly seen as useful to understand the work of a legislature, needs to be approached with care. Not all Acts of Tynwald are of equal reach and significance; and the same can be said for each clause within an Act. Thirdly, Tynwald does not legislate in a vacuumn, but frequently is responding to a perceived need. At periods of rapid crisis, for instance war, economic collapse, or pandemic, one would not be surprised to see either very wide ranging legislation, or an increased volume of legislation, as the legislature plays its part.

All of that said, a review of the number of Acts passed each year since 2001 does suggest that the period since the last General Election in September 2021 has been one in which comparatively little primary legislation has been passed.

2021 itself saw a spike, with 24 Acts of Tynwald being passed that year. This reflects, however, the work of the previously constituted House of Keys. Of the 24 Acts, 15 had received Royal Assent before the General Election. The remaining 9 received Royal Assent after the General Election, but had left Tynwald before the General Election. Thus, this 24 was not the product of the House of Keys elected in September 2021.