§ Sir B. PETOI wish to ask you, Mr. Speaker, a question of which I have given you private notice, namely, whether your attention has been drawn to the recommendation of the Select Committee on Publications and Debates Reports, in their report published in November, 1932, that Division Lists should no longer be published in Votes and Proceedings, and whether steps will be taken to give effect to that recommendation?
§ Mr. SPEAKERIn reply to the hon. Member, the printing and publishing of 1738 Division Lists in Votes and Proceedings is a practice of such long standing—it was first instituted by Resolution of the House in 1836—that I should not like to order its discontinuance unless I felt that I had the general approval of all parties in the House. For the information of the House, I must point out that very considerable economy would be effected thereby. The cost of publishing Division Lists in Votes and Proceedings, taken on an average over the last five years, is £1,690 a Session. This is certainly a sum the expenditure of which it is difficult to justify unless there is a real need for it. Perhaps the Whips of the different parties will let me know in the course of a few days what are the views of Members with regard to this suggested economy.
§ Sir B. PETOArising out of that reply, I would ask you, Mr. Speaker, if you could use your influence in this matter in the interests of economy, inasmuch as these Division Lists are now published in the Parliamentary Debates OFFICIAL REPORT, and that therefore the work is really done quite well.