§ MR. A. J. BALFOUR (City of London),remarking that some doubt still existed in the minds of a large number of Members whether Monday was to be counted as a day allotted to Supply—a Question on which point had been put by the right hon. Member for West Derbyshire on the previous day†—asked the Speaker for further information. He said the matter was of great importance, because the number of days allotted to Supply was limited under the Standing Order, and by cutting off one day great injury might be done to those whose business it was to criticise the Government. The Standing Order provided that a day occupied by the consideration of Estimates supplementary to those of the preceding session should not be included in the computation of twenty days. He did not, of course, suggest that Monday was occupied by the consideration of the Supplementary Estimate then taken, but when he was responsible for the management of the business of the House he would have thought he had very seriously impaired the probability of this being a counted day if he had permitted anything but the financial business of the year to come under the consideration of the House. He would be glad to know definitely whether Monday was to be a counting day, although business had been done which did not come under that prescribed by the Standing Order. He quite admitted that the matter was a small one in so far as the actual time occupied by the Vote was concerned, for that time was insignificant, but the Speaker's ruling would be of great importance not only as regulating their
† See (4) Debates, cliv., 398.642 affairs for this session, but also as regulating the manner in which this rule was to be worked in the future.
§ * MR. SPEAKERI am sorry I did not make myself quite clear yesterday. What occurred was that when the business of Supply set down for Monday terminated at 10.30 a number of Reports of Supply were taken, and among them was one relating to the Navy which was a Supplementary Vote of last year. If my attention had been called to it at the time I should have warned the Government that they were endangering the possibility of the day being counted as an Allotted Day. But nobody raised the point that day, and it was only on the following day that my attention was called to it. Now the rule states that not more than twenty days are to be allotted to Supply, provided that a day occupied by the consideration of Estimates supplementary to those of the previous session shall not be included. The Report of a certain Supplementary Estimate was taken on Monday, but I cannot hold that the day was "occupied" by its consideration, as the time occupied on it was not more than a minute or two. Therefore in my opinion it ought to count as an allotted day, although had my attention been called to the point at the time I should have recommended the Government not to press that Report.