OFFICIAL REPORT (Hansard, 25 March 1964)

§ Mr. Warbey
I wish to raise a point of order, Mr. Speaker, in connection with the printing of the OFFICIAL REPORT. In accordance with the usual practice, the copy of the OFFICIAL REPORT which is available to hon. Members today concludes with the proceedings as they were at about 10.30 p.m. last night—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. The hon. Member is too late, if he is talking of yesterday's OFFICIAL REPORT.

§ Mr. Warbey
With great respect, Mr. Speaker, you have not heard the point which I wish to make. It is that I wish to ask you, Sir, as the representative of this House, to take steps to facilitate, on behalf of the House, the business of the House in Committee; which can be done, I should have thought, without any very great difficulty or any great technical objection. The position is that we shall shortly be going into Committee on the Resale Prices Bill and will be engaged in discussing a number of Amendments which have been tabled.
The discussion of those Amendments, and the attitude which hon. Members take towards them, must be very much influenced by what has happened during the previous proceedings of the Committee, particularly as it so happened, as hon. Members are aware—the whole House is now aware, from the Votes and Proceedings, although not from the OFFICIAL REPORT, and you, Sir, are aware—that last night, some time after 10.30 p.m., the House divided on an Amendment to the Bill, and that 203 hon. Members supported that Amendment. We also learn from the official proceedings that 204 hon. Members opposed the Amendment.
In those circumstances, where there is a very close division of opinion about a matter of primary importance—and this was an Amendment which cut right at the heart of the Bill—it is generally regarded by the common practice of the House in Committee that statements 480 made by the spokesman of the Government at that time—in this case, by the Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development and President of the Board of Trade—and by the acting Leader of the Opposition, and by other hon. Members—such as the hon. and gallant Member for Buckingham (Sir F. Markham) and the hon. Member for Putney (Sir H. Linstead)—concerned with the Amendment in question; that the statements made at that time, or subsequent to such a vote, are of considerable importance in regard to the future proceedings in respect of the Bill. For example, it is usual for the right hon. Gentleman in charge of a Bill to give some undertaking about the steps the Government propose to take to meet the wishes expressed by hon. Members in the Committee.
It will, I submit, be quite impossible for us, when we go into Committee, to consider the rest of the Bill properly and decide how we shall speak and vote on the Amendments now tabled unless we are in possession of a verbatim report of yesterday's proceedings. I am aware that there may be technical difficulties, but I should have thought that by this time the printers of the OFFICIAL REPORT would have had the full verbatim report of the proceedings of yesterday's sitting of the Committee already set up in type, ready to be run off.
I should like to ask you, Mr. Speaker, whether you could make arrangements with the printers of the OFFICIAL REPORT for them to run off sufficient copies of yesterday's proceedings for distribution to hon. Members, who can have them in their possession when considering the Bill this afternoon.

§ Mr. Speaker
Of course, I shall inquire about the technical possibilities, but I really could not hold out much hope. As the House knows, HANSARD and the Stationery Office really do a most wonderful job—[HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."]—and put the OFFICIAL REPORT before us as quickly as they can. I venture to think that the hon. Member's suggestion might be asking a good deal, but, of course, as a servant of the House, I will find out what can be done. Of course, they were giants in the old days, but they did manage somehow until 1909, when there was not an OFFICIAL REPORT at all.