HC Deb 01 July 1881 vol 262 cc1833-5
MR. SCHREIBER

asked the Prime Minister, Whether, as Public Business on Mondays and Thursdays now commenced at a quarter past 4 o'clock, he. would endeavour to insure a more punctual attendance on the part of his Colleagues at that hour, for the purpose of answering Questions which stood on the Notice Paper?

MR. GLADSTONE

I am sorry for the inconvenience to which Members are subjected; but to a great extent they feel the evil pressing upon Ministers of the Crown. When the preliminary Business now comes on, the Questioning very many times, especially on Mondays and Thursdays, continues for two hours or two and a-half hours. The Questions are scattered here and there, one, two, or three, to several Ministers; and, considering all that Ministers have to attend to. the matter becomes one of very great difficulty. For my own part, I sometimes find it impossible to spend the whole time waiting until the period arrives for the commencement of Business. While I sympathize with the inconvenience from which Members suffer, it sometimes occurs to me that, if Members were willing to acquiesce in a system by which the Questions to be put to each Minister might be placed together, it might probably lead to a considerable mitigation of the difficulty. I cannot say, without consultation with the authorities, whether that can be done.

MR. SCHREIBER

said, that he had asked the Question from having observed that sometimes the list was otherwise gone through when Ministers appeared in their places, and there was nothing but loss of time from their non-attendance.

MR. CHILDERS

It is not Ministers only who are absent at Question time. I came down yesterday, and out of six Questions on the Paper to be addressed to me, in four cases the Members who were to put them were not present.

MR. W. E. FORSTER

I must also state, although I have had my share of Questions, that only once during the Session I have not been in time, and that, generally speaking, hon. Members who are to put the Questions are not present, as was the case just now with the hon. Member for the City of Cork (Mr. Parnell).

MR. GORST

said, he would ask the Prime Minister next week, whether it would not be possible when Questions were put requiring Departmental information that the answers should be printed with the Votes, and so save time in putting the Questions, and the time taken up by Ministers in replying?

MR. NEWDEGATE

wished to put a Question to the Prime Minister on a subject which had been considered by the Committee on Public Business in 1861. He would ask the Prime Minister whether he could not make some suggestion for the regulation of the manner in which Questions were put, so as to give the House itself some command over them?

MR. GLADSTONE

While I entirely appreciate the motive and intention of the Notice just given by the hon. and learned Member for Chatham (Mr. Gorst), I must say that the whole subject of the Rules with regard to Questions requires further and comprehensive consideration. Questions formerly, when I entered the House, were of very rare occurrence, and for many years they formed so slight a portion of the Business of the House that, as regards time, they required no regulation, but regulated themselves without difficulty. They have now become a very serious and, I am bound to add, a very important part of the Business, and, therefore, not frivolous or trifling. I think the Question suggested by the hon. Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. Newdegate) will require serious consideration.