Information on private briefings given to members of Tynwald will be published later this month.

A change in standing orders to be moved at the October sitting would see information about the meetings published for the first time.

If approved, the Clerk of Tynwald’s Office will regularly make public its diary data about briefings and any presentation content circulated to members.

However, briefing hosts can request that information is not made public, and routine publication will only happen three months after the event.

The sessions are usually hosted by government representatives and often discuss forthcoming parliamentary business.

The new publication system, to be moved by Speaker of the House of Keys Juan Watterson, follows a campaign by Examiner columnist Alistair Ramsay.

He says closed briefings to MHKs and MLCs take place ‘so frequently’ in the Barrool Suite of the legislative buildings that the room has become known as ‘Tynwald’s fourth chamber’.

His Freedom of Information request earlier this year was met with the response that all briefings were confidential as a matter of parliamentary privilege.

Mr Ramsay said: ‘The more open approach is a welcome step in the right direction but it is still a long way from the full transparency the public expects.

‘The three-month delay on publication suggests that at the time of the briefing the content is too sensitive for public consumption, which will only fuel speculation about what members are discussing behind closed doors. And there is still no guarantee all information given to members is shared with the public.

‘Parliamentary consideration of policy and legislation is supposed to be a transparent process, so private meetings of parliament are wrong.’