§ MR. D. A. THOMAS (Merthyr Tydfil)I beg to ask the hon. Member for Watford, as Chairman of the Committee of Selection, whether the Committee have experienced any difficulty in giving effect to the Instruction of the House, given on the 21st of February last year, that in selecting Members to serve on Committees for the consideration of Private Bills equal consideration shall be granted to any Member on the ground of his private profession, business, or avocation; whether he can state the number of members of the learned professions actively engaged in practice who have served on Private Bill Committees last session and this session respectively; and if he will furnish a list of those Members who have not served on any Private Bill Committee during the past three sessions.
§ *MR. HALSEY (Hertfordshire, Watford)In answer to the first paragraph of the hon. Member's question, I have to say that the Committee of Selection have not experienced any special difficulty in carrying out the instruction of the House to which the hon. Member refers. With regard to the second paragraph of the question, the hon. Member can, I think, obtain the information he requires for last session by examining the Sessional Return relating to Private Bills and Private Business, No. 0.273, but it would obviously be impossible to give the information for the present session until the Private Business of the year is concluded. The third paragraph only appeared on the Paper on Saturday, and I have had no notice of it, but it appears to be in the nature of a Return, which should be moved for in the ordinary way. I may point out that Returns of all Members who have served on Committees are moved for at the end of every session, and the hon. Member can easily obtain the information he desires by comparing those Returns with a list of the House.