§ The Under-Secretary of State for Defence for the Army (Mr. Ivor Richard)With your permission, Mr. Speaker, I should like to make a personal statement.
At Question Time yesterday, I answered a supplementary question from the hon. Member for Moray and Nairn (Mr. Gordon Campbell) on the development of the rocket range in the Hebrides in these terms:
The hon. Gentleman knows that within 48 hours of having made the statement in the House I wrote to him and to other Members most directly concerned in this matter, correcting that."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 3rd December, 1969; Vol. 792, c. 1463.]I now find that, whereas I did indeed write to the hon. Member on 16th October, my letter did not cover the precise point in question, namely, the income to the islands from the rocket range in the current year.This information was, in fact, given to the hon. Member by my Written Answer to his Parliamentary Question on 22nd October, and in Answers to subsequent Parliamentary Questions on later dates.
I am grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to correct this error, for which I apologise to the House and to the hon. Member concerned.