§ Mr. KershawOn a point of order. May I ask for your guidance, Mr. Speaker? On 9th March I asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he would give me a list of persons from private industry and other spheres who had been appointed by the Government and by various Departments of State, indicating their salary, and so on. The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied:
No. This information is made available in other publications."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 9th March, 1965; Vol. 708, c. 39.]I searched diligently through other publications and found no information, so I put down another Question to the right hon. Gentleman yesterday, asking what these publications were. He told 324 me that the names of the more senior officers are published every two months by Her Majesty"s Stationery Office and that the next edition will be available in April, and that the names of the other advisers and their salaries appear annually in the Imperial Calendar, the next edition of which will appear in April, and will include the names of those appointed to work in Government Departments up to November, 1964.It appears from the Chancellor"s Answer yesterday that his first Answer was wrong in two respects. In the first place, the names were not available, and in the second place only some of the names were available in the publication that he mentioned. What protection have back benchers against a Minister who gives either misleading replies—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. It is quite idle to raise matters which are not points of order. It merely consumes other people"s time. All these are complaints about answers given to the hon. Member. I cannot undertake to amend Minister"s answers even if I knew what they should be.
§ Mr. KershawFurther to that point of order—
§ Mr. SpeakerIt was not a point of order. If the hon. Member has a point of order I will certainly listen.
§ Mr. KershawIs it really in order to give incorrect replies and not—
§ Mr. SpeakerYes. So far as the rules of order are concerned, a reply can be as bad and as inaccurate as possible.