ANDY BURNHAM-STYLE HILLSBOROUGH LAW WILL BE TOO LATE FOR £90 MILLION LORD STREET CASE

• Ministers kick a misconduct-in-public-office law into the long grass

  
  

• Isle of Man will be left behind as the UK advances tougher Hillsborough-style transparency rules

  
  

• Tynwald may get round to public accountability law in the next administration

  
  

• Meanwhile, people and companies who are suing the IoM government for alleged corruption cannot get full disclosure of the documents which they say officials are hiding.

  
  

• In the notorious £90 million Lord Street case, Sondica is facing the EXACT SAME transparency failings which a Hillsborough law would put right.

  
  

• Lord Street claimant alleges six years of disclosure failures and missing or altered-looking emails

  
  

• The judge has blasted the Department of Infrastructure and the Treasury for failing to disclose documents and citing massive costs as an excuse

  
  

• Any new criminal offence will arrive too late to be applied retrospectively to the £90 million Lord Street case

  
  

• And there are similar cases……

  
  

• Ranson tribunal and 85 reported financial irregularities fuel wider concerns about public-sector accountability

THE ARMADILLO INVESTIGATION:

This is Part Three of The Armadillo’s investigation into the £90 million Lord Street court battle and its consequences for the Isle of Man. Part One examined how a defeat for the Government, combined with mounting legal costs and public debt, could threaten the Island’s finances, credit rating and reputation as a secure business centre.

Part Two turned to Skipton Building Society, whose subsidiary chain ultimately owns Lambert Smith Hampton, the third defendant in the case. The story warned that the litigation could become a confidence problem for one of Britain’s biggest mutuals and expose Skipton to damaging headlines despite its denial of wrongdoing.

This third instalment asks whether the Island’s promised misconduct-in-public-office law will arrive too late to save the day. Our report follows an IoM Today article confirming that ministers have no immediate plans to introduce Hillsborough-style legislation, even though Tynwald has already backed a statutory offence.

The Isle of Man Government has ruled out introducing an immediate Hillsborough-style law to force public officials to tell the truth and answer for their decisions.

Justice and Home Affairs Minister John Wannenburgh said there were ‘no plans at the present time’ to bring in legislation similar to the UK’s Public Office Accountability Bill.

But he also admitted Tynwald had already agreed that a new offence was needed.

He told members: ‘There is a Tynwald declaratory resolution that there should be a statutory offence of misconduct in public office, with work to progress on this to be undertaken in the next administration.’

That one sentence exposes the problem.

Politicians accept the Island needs stronger laws to deal with serious wrongdoing by people in public office.

But they are putting off the work until the next administration.

That means any new offence will come too late for the Lord Street case, a major legal battle for the Manx Government.

Sondica Group Inc is suing the Department of Infrastructure, Treasury and property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton over the failed redevelopment of the Lord Street bus station site in Douglas.

The company is seeking damages of £90 million.

The property developer’s claim includes allegations of negligent misstatement and misfeasance in public office.

The Government and the other defendants deny wrongdoing.

But the case has raised questions about the conduct of public officials, the handling of documents and the way a major public development deal was managed.

Disputes have also broken out over missing or altered-looking emails.

Government lawyers deny any tampering and say technical investigations explain what happened. They insist there is no evidence that records were deliberately changed.

If a new offence is only introduced by the next administration, it cannot simply be used against conduct that happened years earlier.

Criminal laws are not normally backdated.

And so even if Tynwald eventually creates a tough new offence, it would not provide a new criminal route for examining what happened in the Lord Street affair.

Critics see the Government’s promise as too little, too late.

Lord Street is not the only controversy to raise questions about standards and accountability inside the Manx public sector.

Another example is former Medical Director Dr Rosalind Ranson.

An Employment Tribunal found Dr Ranson had been constructively and automatically unfairly dismissed after making protected disclosures during the Covid pandemic.

She was awarded almost £3.2 million.

The case exposed failures in the culture and leadership of the public service.

The Chief Minister later admitted the judgment made uncomfortable reading and damaged public confidence.

It was not a criminal misconduct case.

But it was a formal legal finding that a senior public servant had been badly treated after raising concerns.

There have also been dozens of reports of suspected financial irregularities across Government.

Figures for 2024 to 2025 showed 85 cases reported to the Treasury’s Audit Advisory Division.

These included three bribery allegations, 11 theft or fraud cases, 28 procurement governance concerns and 17 contractual issues.

Three cases were referred to the police and the Office of Human Resources.

But the numbers reveal the scale of concerns being raised inside Government, including the Liverpool ferry terminal.

The cost exploded from an early estimate of around £18 million to well over £70 million, with the final bill continuing to attract anger.

The project has been attacked over weak oversight, poor cost control and failures in the handling of a complex public scheme.

Critics say the case remains an example of how badly a public project can go wrong when responsibility is blurred and nobody appears to carry the can.

The Isle of Man already has civil claims, employment tribunals, internal investigations and disciplinary procedures.

But Tynwald itself has accepted that there is still a gap in the law.

Members voted unanimously for a statutory offence of misconduct in public office.

Yet ministers say the real work will be left to the next administration.