§ 18. Mr. C. BATHURSTasked the President of the Board of Agriculture if he can conveniently, and, if so, will consent to, send to a Member of this House who has put to him a starred question a copy on the same Paper of both question and answer, as is done by the Postmaster-General and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and not the answer only, and so save the necessity upon receipt of 13 such answer of having recourse to another document, not always readily available, to aid in its interpretation?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. Herbert Lewis)My right hon. Friend wishes me to say that he will endeavour to meet the hon. Gentleman's wishes. He asks me to point out, however, that the work of the Board is now carried on in six separate buildings, not including the Office of Woods, Kew Gardens, and the Ordnance Survey, and on account of unavoidable loss of time in the transmission of papers it often happens that the typewriting staff has to work at great pressure during what should be the luncheon hour in order to have the day's answers ready in time for the meeting of the House. It is probable, therefore, that when there are many questions on the Paper hon. Members will not receive copies of the answers until a somewhat later hour than at present.