HC Deb 08 August 1940 vol 364 cc420-1
Mr. Gallacher

On a point of Order. I addressed a Question to the Minister of Labour demanding or asking for the reinstatement of an industrial worker. The Question has been transferred to the Home Secretary. Has the Home Secretary power to reinstate an industrial worker, and, if not, can the Question be retransferred to the Minister of Labour?

Mr. Speaker

I will see whether that can be done.

Mr. Silverman

; If this is the right time to raise points of Order of that kind, I would like to raise one. My point of Order refers to Question 142, which is on the Paper addressed to the Secretary of State for War. I handed it in on Monday of this week addressed to the Home Secretary. The Clerk at the Table had some doubt whether it was acceptable and had to resolve that doubt, so that there was some delay. It therefore had to wait until to-day. Yesterday afternoon I was told that the Question had been transferred from the Home Secretary to the Secretary of State for War, with the result that it appears to-day on the Question Paper as Number 142, so that there is no practical possibility of its being asked. According to the practice of this House, could not consent have been sought earlier, so that the Question could have appeared on the Paper on a day when Questions to the Secretary of State for War were likely to be reached and answered?

Mr. Speaker

Would the hon. Member like the Question to be postponed until Tuesday?

Mr. Silverman

Yes, Sir, but that means very much greater delay. Had the consent been sought earlier, an arrangement could have been made for asking the Question upon an earlier day.

Mr. Speaker

On the general question, I can only give the hon. Member the answer which I have given to similar points of Order before, which is that when Questions are handed in they are referred to the Department immediately concerned. This Question appears late on the list because there is such an enormous number of Questions on the Paper.

Mr. Silverman

I do not want to press this matter too long, but as we have got to the point, which you have just raised, of the Question being addressed to the proper Department, I ought to point out that I did address the Question to the Department which has normally answered such Questions. No information was given to me until yesterday afternoon that it was being addressed to another Department.

Mr. Speaker

I am sorry the hon. Member did not receive the information earlier.

Mr. S. O. Davies

I have been placed in a similar difficulty myself. I handed in a Question on Tuesday, directed to the Home Secretary. No objection was raised at the Table. The Home Secretary had assumed responsibility for all that had happened and that is referred to in my Question, which is No. 143 to-day. I find that my Question has been referred to the Secretary of State for War, after the House has been definitely told by the Home Secretary that he was responsible for what had happened and is referred to in my Question. Members are placed in extreme difficulty. One is loth to believe that a Question has been consigned to the limbo of unanswered Questions in order to avoid answering a question of some importance.

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Member should not make that suggestion. It is obvious that his Question was referred to the Department which appeared to be responsible.

Mr. Davies

But the responsibility has been assumed by the Home Secretary. We have been informed in this House— he has admitted before this House and before the country—that it is his own Department which has been responsible for the tragic blunders which have resulted in my own Question being placed on the Order Paper. It is scandalous.