HC Deb 01 July 1969 vol 786 cc234-5
Q3. Mr. Onslow

asked the Prime Minister if he will request the person who gave him the oral reports on the probable consequences of implementing the recommendations of the Parliamentary Boundary Commissions to commit his conclusions to writing so that these may be placed in the Library of the House of Commons.

Mr. Roy Jenkins

I have been asked to reply.

I have nothing to add to what my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department said during the debate on redistribution of seats on 19th June, and to what my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said in reply to a Question by the right hon. Member for Kingston-upon-Thames (Mr. Boyd-Carpenter) on 26th June.—[Vol. 785, c. 737–51: Vol. 785, c. 1703–4.]

Mr. Onslow

Apart from the fact that that does not answer my Question, will no one ever add some artistic verisimilitude to the Prime Minister's bald and unconvincing narrative?

Mr. Jenkins

I wonder what the hon. Gentleman would have done with his carefully prepared supplementary question if he had thought that I had answered his Question. The Question was put in almost precisely the same form to the Prime Minister in April, and was answered.

Mr. Whitaker

Can my right hon. Friend say whether the new constituency proposals take into account the 18 to 21-year-old voters?

Mr. Jenkins

I am not sure that this information was available to the Boundary Commission, but this subject is to be debated tomorrow, and the whole matter can be discussed then.

Mr. Maudling

As there are strong reasons for believing that the Government's actions in this matter are in open breach of the law, will the right hon. Gentlemen tell the House what advice was received from the Law Officers in this matter?

Mr. Jenkins

As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister indicated when this subject was last discussed at Question time in the House, the Law Officers are consulted in these matters, and the normal practice was followed. I have nothing to add to what the Prime Minister said on precisely this point on the last occasion.

Mr. Maudling

Surely in these matters the Law Officers should advise not merely the Government but the House as a whole, and the House is entitled to know what their view is?

Mr. Jenkins

The right hon. Gentlemen will have plenty of opportunity to raise this in the debate tomorrow.

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