HC Deb 12 March 1885 vol 295 cc893-4
MR. ARTHUR O'CONNOR

Mr. Speaker, I wish to submit a point of Order to you with regard to the proceedings of this evening. The first Order of the Day is for Supply, and it is intended, I believe, that the Supplementary Civil Service Estimates should be taken. Now, I find by Standing Order No. 425A, passed on the 27th of November, 1882, that— Whenever the Committee of Supply stands as the First Order of the Day on Monday or Thursday Mr. Speaker shall leave the Chair without putting any Question, unless on first going into Supply on the Army, Navy, or Civil Service Estimates respectively, or on any Vote of Credit, an Amendment he moved or Question raised relating to the Estimates proposed to be taken in Supply. The point I wish, Sir, to submit to you is this—the Vote on Account which the Government propose to take to-night is for the Civil Services and Revenue Departments Estimates, 1885–6, and does not refer to the present financial year, but to the new financial year commencing on the 1st of April, 1885. Therefore, if the Government are to take this Vote on Account to-night and bring it on after you have left the Chair, and Committee of Supply has been begun on the Estimates for the current year, I want to know whether private Members will be deprived of the opportunity, which would otherwise be afforded to them, of moving an Amendment to the Motion that you leave the Chair on the first occasion of going into Committee of Supply on the Civil Service Estimates for the next financial year?

MR. SPEAKER

The opportunity for discussion, to which the hon. Member refers, will be given on the regular Civil Service Estimates of the year. That is a point which has already been settled by the Chair.

MR. ARTHUR O'CONNOR

Are we, then, to understand that after the 1st of April, or on the next occasion, when the Civil Service Estimates for 1885–6 are down on the Paper for Committee of Supply, it will be open for any hon. Member to move an Amendment on the Motion that you leave the Chair?

MR. SPEAKER

Yes; that would be the case.