§ Mr. Arthur LewisOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In deference to your wish I did not raise this as a point of order while Questions were being answered, but may I refer back to Question No. Q6? You will recollect that the Prime Minister referred the questioner to an Answer already given.
My point of order is that it is well known that an hon. Member cannot put a Question to a Minister, including the Prime Minister, when that information is freely and readily available. This information was freely and readily available. With great respect to you, to the Table and to the hon. Member, the hon. Member should have been referred to the appropriate copy of HANSARD, which would have given him the Answer. This could have prevented all the supplementary questions being asked on this issue and further Questions to the Prime Minister could have been asked. I ask that you should look at this matter in future.
§ Mr. SpeakerI am grateful to the hon. Member for postponing his point of order from Question Time. The position is that very often an hon. Member puts down a Question well ahead within the three weeks provided. If a similar Question is answered some days before his is reached it is either for the hon. Member to take his Question off the Order Paper or to leave it on; but the Table has no power to take it off.