Staff vital to protect key services, minister says

Alex Allinson's 2024-25 budget was approved by Tynwald in February

Reviewing levels of government staffing is an ongoing process, the Treasury Minister has said.

Both the Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce and members of a Tynwald scrutiny committee have called for a reduction in the wake of the latest budget.

Alex Allinson's financial plan faced criticism for including a 2% rise in the higher rate of income tax and adjustments to National Insurance thresholds to raise revenue at a time when the government headcount had grown.

Dr Allinson said while the government was reviewing its staff numbers, it was important to take care to protect front line services at the same time.

Figures released last year showed the number of employees on the government's payroll had risen by 739 to 8,324 since 2016.

Dr Allinson said the largest employers within government included the departments of health, education, infrastructure, and home affairs.

Limited-term contracts

He said: "For over a decade the Isle of Man government have struggled with the scope and function of government," he said.

"We do need to look at it on a case by case basis how departments are using these resources."

Dr Allinson said the budget outlined aims within the government's human resources division to "do some workforce planning".

That would look at "key staff" in the public sector to "make sure they have the right skills that they need, but also make sure there's no duplication of services and that we use those resources and those people efficiently", he said.

There would also be more people employed on limited-term contracts "for a specific reason", rather that "constantly growing the permanent workforce", Dr Allinson said.

Work needed to be done to "rationalise" what the "core services" provided should be, and what could be "transferred either to the private sector or to another entity", he added.