§ Mr. KennedyMr. Speaker, I beg to ask you the following question, of which I have given you private notice: whether you have observed the growing number of Oral Questions to Ministers remaining unanswered on account of their not being reached before 3.45 p.m. and whether you are prepared to consider for a time a change of procedure, limiting the right to ask supplementary questions to Members of the House whose questions are given in writing to the Clerk at the Table or an extension of the time devoted to questions?
§ Mr. SpeakerI have noticed that almost every day a large number of questions which are on the Paper remain unanswered, but, I have, I think, on several occasions called the attention of the House to the number of supplementary questions which make it difficult for hon. Members having questions later on to be answered. But I should prefer to leave the matter to the good sense and discretion of hon. Members themselves rather than make any suggestion for a change in our procedure at present. At the same time, I do think that the position is unsatisfactory, and, unless some improvement takes place, it might well be a matter for the serious consideration of the House.
§ Sir Percy HarrisAre you aware, Mr. Speaker, that the House feels that the most valuable part of Question Time consists of the supplementaries, and that nothing in our procedure should be done to limit the privilege of asking supplementaries when we get unsatisfactory replies to our questions?
§ Mr. ThorneMay I ask the Prime Minister whether, in consequence of the many questions put down day by day, he will consider the possibility of altering the Standing Orders so that we can have an extra quarter of an hour for questions each day?
§ The Prime MinisterI do not think that that would really make any difference.
§ Mr. GallacherWill the Prime Minister consider the suggestion that has been made by the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy (Mr. Kennedy)?
§ Mr. A. ReedWould it not be possible to limit the supplementaries of each Member to one supplementary in an afternoon, as that would save a tremendous number of supplementary questions?
§ Mr. CocksRather than limit the number of supplementaries, would it not be better to reduce the number of starred questions from three to two?
§ Sir Frank SandersonIs it not possible to limit the number of questions to one per Member per day?
§ Mr. MaxtonWill you make it plain, Mr. Speaker, that you do not regard it as a bad thing that Members of this House should put down a large number of questions on the Paper and be keen to follow them to their logical conclusion?
§ Captain StricklandI feel sure, Mr. Speaker, that you are aware that it is most difficult to put qestions to certain Ministers. I would mention in particular the Minister of Transport in view of the fact that he never takes the opening questions. It is the questions addressed to such Departments as the Ministry of Transport that suffer the most, and I do not know whether it is possible to arrange that each Minister in turn should take priority in answering questions.
§ Mr. PooleWould it not help matters if we had definite answers from Ministers instead of having to extract them by a process of cross-examination?
§ Mr. SpeakerHon. Members will remember that in my reply to the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy (Mr. Kennedy) I said that I would prefer to leave the matter of questions to the good sense of hon. Members themselves as the best way of coming to a satisfactory conclusion.
§ Sir Cooper RawsonWhat happens if the Member has not got any good sense?
§ Captain StricklandWould not that still put the questions to certain Ministers at a great disadvantage?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. and gallant Member will realise that there are more Ministers than days in the week.