§ Mr. CallaghanOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. We have had three important statements today and I rather detected that at the end of the time you were anxious for us to proceed. Standing Orders say that Questions shall last an hour and that we shall then enter upon the Orders of the Day. Would you therefore consider asking the Leader of the House to discuss with you the convenience of the House when we embark upon the Orders of the Day one hour and twenty-five minutes after what was expected to be the appointed time? Could you make certain that the Government space out their very important statements, in which the House is naturally interested, 450 in such a way that hon. Members who come here expecting the business to start at the time laid down in Standing Orders shall have the opportunity of ensuring that that business is not preceded by many statements of this length?
§ The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. William Whitelaw)Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate what the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Cardiff, South-East (Mr. Callaghan) has said. No one has been keener than I to space out statements, and I have done everything I could to space them out. I take no credit for doing so, but I have in fact spaced them out a great deal better than the previous Government spaced theirs out. I have done my best and always will. But I cannot take account—and I understand that the right hon. Gentleman may laugh at me for what I am going to say—of Private Notice Questions which may arise on a day when I did not know they were going to arise and on which statements have been planned.
I think you will agree, Mr. Speaker, that it is fair to me to point out that part of the time today has been taken up by a Private Notice Question, quite rightly and properly, which was put down by an hon. Member opposite but which I could not take account of in arranging for the statements to be made. I am sorry about this and I will do my best in future.
§ Mr. SpeakerThis is no new problem. It has existed in the past. I appreciate the statements made by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Cardiff, South-East (Mr. Callaghan) and by the Leader of the House. The House is in some difficulty in balancing the eagerness of hon. Members who ask supplementary questions on statements and the eagerness of those hon. Members waiting in the wings for the Orders of the Day, which we have not yet reached.