The island’s relationship with the UK government is probably as good as it’s ever been.
That’s the view of Chief Minister Allan Bell who last week welcomed a visit from members of the House of Commons justice committee.
The committee was looking at how recommendations contained in its 2010 report on the constitutional relationship with the Crown Dependencies have been implemented.
Mr Bell said the recommendations of that report had made substantial improvements to the relationship between the Isle of Man, the UK government and the Ministry of Justice.
He said that before the committee’s report, legislation could take anything up to 12 months to get Royal Assent. Now a Bill can be turned around in four to five weeks.
Another recommendation from the committee’s 2010 report was to give Manx government departments greater access to their Whitehall counterparts rather than having to go through the MoJ. Mr Bell said: ‘That’s worked very well. There is a much better understanding within the UK. On every level our relationship is probably as good as it’s ever been.’