§ Mr. Arthur LewisOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I gave you notice of my wish to raise a point of order on Question No. 2. May I now draw your attention to the fact that there are some eight obviously sponsored Questions and that, although I refer to Question No. 2, the same remarks apply to each of those Questions?
710 It is a rule of the House that an hon. Member may not put down a Question asking for information which is readily available. [Interruption.] If the Leader of the House will stop exploding for a moment, I repeat that this is a rule of the House, and very often the Table Office refers hon. Members to the relevant official documents and papers. If the hon. Member cannot find the information that he seeks he has the assistance of the Library, which gives an admirable service.
It is also a rule of the House that an hon. Member cannot table Questions on a Bill which is in process of going through the House. All the Questions to which I have referred ask for information which is readily available from the Vote Office. Each Question could be answered by the hon. Member concerned getting a copy of the relevant Bill and taking the information from it. The hon. Members concerned may well say that they found difficulty in getting the information that they required from the relevant Bills. Bills are sometimes very complicated. However, if a Bill is too complicated for an hon. Member opposite to obtain the information that he seeks, that does not say much for the chances of an ordinary trade unionist working in a factory.
Each one of the Questions to which I have referred asks for interpretations and for information which is contained in the relevant Bills. I ask you to say, Mr. Speaker, that you will see in future that the rule is abided by strictly on these sorts of questions.
§ Mr. SpeakerI have had an opportunity to consider this point. I think that the hon. Member for West Ham, North (Mr. Arthur Lewis) would be quite right if he were to say that Questions which suggest amendments to a Bill would not be in order. But Questions merely seeking elucidation have always been acceptable. I do not think that the Table Office would have been justified in refusing to allow any of the Questions on today's Order Paper.
§ Mr. AshtonOn a further point of order, Mr. Speaker. May I draw your attention to Question No. Q8, tabled by the hon. Member for Hampstead (Mr. Geoffrey Finsberg)? Two weeks ago I tried to table an identical Question, but 711 it was refused by the Table Office, and a letter was sent by the Prime Minister's staff saying that he had transferred it to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. While accepting that the Prime Minister has the power to transfer or dodge any Question that he does not want to answer, is not it against the rules of the House for his Department to accept a Question from an hon. Member opposite when it has rejected the same Question from an hon. Member on these benches?
§ Mr. SpeakerThese are not matters for the Chair.