Sir J. D. REESMay I ask, Mr. Speaker, how an hon. Member can get an oral answer from the Secretary of State for the Home Department or the President of the Board of Education? Though I have pursued both Ministers with unrelenting industry ever since the House resumed, they are both entrenched behind so many other Ministers that on no single occasion have I ever got within about 100 on the Paper. After long waiting I have been constrained to accept the always-offered but never-welcomed Paper answer. How can some disposition be made so as to enable a Member to get at these two Ministers?
§ Mr. SPEAKERYes, I think I can suggest a very simple remedy, and that is a little more self-restraint and a little more consideration for colleagues in the putting of supplementary questions. It is quite easy for us to get through a hundred or more than a hundred questions each day if hon. Members will be good enough to have consideration for their colleagues. On the particular case named by the hon. Baronet I find that the questions of the Ministers he refers to were reached. The Home Secretary's questions stand fourth on Tuesdays. They were reached to-day. They were reached and passed on Tuesday of last week. With regard to the Minister of Education, his questions stand third on the Monday. They were reached and passed yesterday. The hon. Baronet, I think, has not shown his usual industry in finding out the best way to put down his questions, and in discovering the days on which Ministers have an early place.