§ Mr. LoganOn a point of order. Yesterday I raised a question with you, Mr. Speaker, in regard to private notice. I submitted a Private Notice Question to you. You considered the matter and rejected that Private Notice Question. I accept of course, without any reservation, your authority, but I am in a dilemma about it, because although I have accepted your Ruling I do not think that it is a fair consideration of the position which I put before you. I honestly accept what you say. [Laughter.] Well, I must put the point.
I put it before you because it was a serious matter for me. Where a Member of Parliament gets a complaint from a constituent of batoning by the police, has he not the right to go personally and try to get authority for the statement that has been given to him? I did so, and then I attempted to put down a Private Notice Question, but it was not accepted. I have now taken the ordinary course of putting a Question on the Order Paper. If anything of the kind occurs again, I want to know from you what redress there is, or what manner of approach a Member of this House can use, in dealing with a matter like that.
§ Mr. SpeakerI carefully considered the hon. Member's Question. The reason I 236 could not allow it as a Private Notice Question was that it was directed to the Home Secretary concerning a matter for which the Home Secretary was not responsible.
As to the second part of the hon. Member's question, the right of a Member of Parliament to access to his constituents in the constituency does not raise a question of Privilege for me. So far as I am aware, the rights of a Member in that regard are not protected by Parliamentary Privilege. He has no more right to access to another man than anyone else has. On both those grounds I was unable to assist the hon. Gentleman. I understand that after considering the matter with the Table he has put down a written Question in a form which is in order. I hope he will get an answer which is satisfactory to him.