§ Mr. S. SilvermanI would like to raise a point of order with you, Mr. Speaker, and I apologise for not having given you prior notice. The reason for not having given notice is that the matter has only just come to my attention and there was not time to do it. I think that the rule is that one must draw attention to such a matter promptly if at all.
It arises out of the OFFICIAL REPORT of our debates yesterday, when, you will remember, at the end of Questions the Attorney-General made a statement about the Election Return in respect of the constituency of Knutsford. There were a number of questions and answers arising out of that statement and towards the end I asked a question, which is reported at column 1042. The learned Attorney-General was good enough to give an answer to that question, but the answer is not recorded.
The report of proceedings at that point of our business yesterday closed with my question, the answer not being reported. That is not the whole of the matter, however, because mine was not the last question asked. The last question asked was that by my hon. Friend the Member for Openshaw (Mr. W. R. Williams)—if I may say so, a most important question— 1151 which the Attorney-General answered very frankly and simply. That question and answer are both, like the answer to my question, omitted from the REPORT.
I hope it will not be thought that this is a trivial complaint. The matter that we were discussing is something that happens very rarely—I think the last occasion was forty or fifty years ago—and our proceedings in such a matter are usually based on the precedents of what has happened in previous times on similar occasions. Our knowledge of what happened on previous occasions depends on what is reported, and if questions or answers, or questions and answers, are omitted from the OFFICIAL REPORT on such an occasion, it is apt to lead to substantial error in the future, even though there is no particular harm at the moment. Therefore, Sir, I should like to ask you what is the proper step to take in order to have the record corrected.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. S. Silverman), for reasons which he mentioned, has given me no notice of this matter. It concerns, as I understand it, failure to report accurately our proceedings yesterday on the matter of the Knutsford Election Return. The hon. Member will agree, I think, that it is reasonable that I should have an opportunity of looking into the matter, because it has come to me as a surprise. I do not have the relevant copy of the OFFICIAL REPORT by me and, therefore, I cannot charge my memory with what actually occurred; but I will look into it and see whether anything can be done to put any error right.
[Note: The proceedings referred to were omitted by error, and have now been included at col. 1042.]