§ The following Question stood upon the Order Paper—
§ 54. Sir KNOX CUNNINGHAMTo ask the Attorney-General what changes are being made in the Public Record Office 1632 to meet the increased interest in historical documents; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir Knox CunninghamI see that the right hon. and learned Gentleman is not present on the Government Front Bench. Perhaps he will be along soon.
§ Sir Knox CunninghamOn a point of order—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I am longing for points of order.
§ Sir Knox CunninghamMay I have your assurance, Mr. Speaker, that as the Attorney-General is not present now to answer my Question, I shall get an answer at 3.30, when the right hon. and learned Gentleman comes to the House?
§ Mr. SpeakerThis has happened before and provision is made in the Standing Orders for this eventuality. If the Attorney-General arrives at 3.30 the hon. and learned Gentleman will be allowed to put his Question. Any more points of order?
§ Mr. ShinwellFurther to that point of order. Is it not the case that if members of the Conservative Party who put Questions on the Order Paper had the decency to attend the House—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I want to hear the point of order.
§ Mr. ShinwellIf they had the decency to attend at the appropriate time, instead of attending to outside interests, then it would have been possible for the hon. and learned Member for Antrim, South (Sir Knox Cunningham) to receive a reply to this Question.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The right hon. Gentleman's point of order would carry some weight if all the absentees belonged to one side of the House. Unfortunately for his point of order, they do not.
§ Sir A. V. HarveyFurther to that point of order. If the right hon. Member for Easington (Mr. Shinwell) had been here during all of Question Time he would have known that a great number of his own colleagues were absent from the House.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I had already dealt with that matter, though perhaps less eloquently.
§ Mr. William HamiltonFurther to that point of order. It is quite right that there are Members on both sides who are absent—
§ Mr. ShinwellMore are absent on the other side.
§ Mr. HamiltonWe are about to pass legislation to ban unofficial strikes. I am wondering whether the legislation might apply to this House. Since it is quite clear that some—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Noise does not help at all.
§ Mr. HamiltonSince it is quite clear that some of the hon. Members who were absent are now present, would it be possible to go back on the Order Paper and give them an opportunity to ask the Questions that they were not here to ask earlier?
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. We live in the permissive society, but it is not as permissive as that. I want to help the House if I can. The Prime Minister is here——
§ Mr. HigginsOn a point of order. Mr. Speaker. May I ask Question No. 55?
§ Mr. SpeakerI am grateful to the hon. Gentleman.
§ Later—
§ Mr. SpeakerWe now return to Question No. 54.
§ The Attorney-General (Sir Elwyn Jones)I greatly regret that I was not present when Question No. 54 was reached. I intended no discourtesy to the House. I apologise for this abberation on my part. Perhaps I shall be permitted to answer the Question now.
My noble Friend the Lord Chancellor announced in another place on 30th April that accommodation in Her Majesty's Land Registry in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which is no longer needed because of the establishment of District Land Registries, has been made available to the Public Record Office. Search rooms 1634 for 100 readers have been opened there and 15,000 feet of records, consisting of Cabinet and Foreign Office records, census returns and other intensively used records, are stored there. Additional space is available there for further search room and storage accommodation as need arises. The accommodation thus made available should meet the needs of the Public Record Office until the mid-seventies. Plans for longer-term needs are being actively pursued.
§ Mr. SpeakerAnswers, even if late, should be reasonably brief.
§ Sir Knox CunninghamI am grateful to the Attorney-General. May I sympathise with him for the Whips failing in their duty to keep him informed of the business of the House?
§ The Attorney-GeneralI accept full responsibility for my absence.
§ Mr. MurrayAs more space is being made available for the Public Record Office, will more documents, such as the census of 1871, be made available to the public earlier?
§ The Attorney-GeneralI note my hon. Friend's point.