§ Mr. Peter Shore (Bethnal Green and Stepney)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. My point of order involves both the procedures of the House and the Minister of State, Home Office.
On Monday 21 October, I submitted nine separate questions about visitors from Bangladesh for written priority answer. I submitted those questions to the Home Secretary, but on Thursday 24 October I received a reply from the Minister of State to all nine questions, which stated simply, "I shall reply as soon as possible". I make no complaint about that, because it is a familiar reply to questions before the information is available to Ministers.
However, the very next morning, on Friday 25 October, it was reported to me — and I have subsequently checked the tape—that the same Minister of State, in the BBC radio programme "Today", volunteered the precise information that I had requested in one of the nine questions to which I still await replies.
This raises questions about the Minister's conduct and the rights of Members on which I seek your guidance. Mr. Speaker. First, is it not plain that the Minister misled the House in his written reply? He clearly had the information for which he was asked and he clearly did not reply as soon as possible, as he said he would. Indeed, he has not yet replied to the questions put down by me seven days ago. If the Minister had been a visitor from Bangladesh and had answered questions in such a way at Heathrow, he would have been put on the next plane home.
Secondly, if a Minister is asked a question in the House, is it not an abuse for that Minister deliberately to withhold the information that he possesses?
Finally, is it not a gross discourtesy for the Minister to release to the BBC, and through it to the press, the same information that he withheld from a Member of the House and is it not in direct conflict with the advice that you have consistently given to Ministers?
§ Mr. SpeakerWhat the right hon. Gentleman has said is not exactly a matter for me. It is a matter for the Government and for the Minister concerned, who is here.
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. David Waddington)Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. I certainly meant no discourtesy to the right hon. Gentleman. He will recall that he put down a large number of interlinked questions. I cannot remember whether it was tabled yesterday or whether it has been tabled now, but what was obviously required and what was considered to be most convenient to the right hon. Gentleman was to put down one answer to all those questions.
§ Mr. ShoreFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. I must make it perfectly plain that they were separate questions which deserve and should have separate replies. One of those replies was clearly available to the Minister of State when he refrained from giving it on Thursday afternoon.