HC Deb 03 February 1944 vol 396 cc1385-7
33. Mr. Frankel

asked the Minister of Health whether, as the Rent Restrictions Committee have decided to conduct their proceedings in private, the House can be assured that the Minutes of Evidence will be published in due course.

Mr. Willink

As the Committee have followed the practice of previous committees on this subject and decided that their proceedings should be private, I do not think I could properly give an assurance that the Minutes of Evidence will be published. Copies of the memoranda of evidence submitted to the Committee will, however, be placed in the Library of the House at the conclusion of the Inquiry and the Committee's report will, of course, be published in due course.

Mr. Frankel

Is the Minister aware of the great importance of this matter to many hundreds of thousands of people in this country, and are they to be denied knowledge at any time of what is going on during the inquiry?

Mr. Willink

I have to take account of what is the normal practice with committees of this kind, of the wish and the decision of this Committee and also of the very great bulk of the evidence that will be submitted orally.

Mr. Frankel

Is not the Minister aware that the conditions under which many hundreds of thousands of these people are living are not normal, and that, therefore, he ought to waive the normal procedure in their case?

Mr. Willink

The question of conditions is quite other than the question whether this very large mass of evidence should be published in full.

Mr. Buchanan

Is the Minister aware that the question of rent is perhaps one of the most important considerations in the income and life of the great mass of working people, and that evidence on the question whether an increase of rent should be granted is something of which the public ought to be fully informed?

Mr. Willink

The hon. Member will realise that the first part of that question is wholly remote from the question addressed to me. If the memoranda of evidence and the whole report are available, the public and Members of this House will have the full material.

Mr. Silverman

If the Committee had decided to take the evidence in public the question of publishing the whole of the oral evidence afterwards would not arise; and is it not important that, while the inquiry is on, we should know what evidence is before it, so as to be able to deal with it and reply to it?

Mr. Willink

No, Sir, I do not agree.

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