HC Deb 04 August 1971 vol 822 cc1588-90
Mr. John Smith

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I seek your guidance in relation to Oral Question No. 58 on today's Order Paper. I put this Question to the Secretary of State for Scotland: To asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will cause the Scottish Development Department to make a special study of unemployment problems in Lanarkshire. The Secretary of State for Scotland transferred this Question to the Secretary of State for Employment, who has no departmental responsibility for the Scottish Development Department. I seek your guidance as to what an hon. Member can do when a Minister wrongly transfers a Question to another Minister who has no responsibility for the subject referred to in the Question. May I also ask your guidance as to how I can establish, if the Secretary of State for Scotland has lost control of the Scottish Development Department, who now controls it?

Mr. Speaker

I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving me notice that he would raise this question. The matter of the transfer of Questions from one Department to another is not a matter for Chair. I am sure that what the hon. Member has said will have been noted.

Dr. Dickson Mabon

Further to the point of order raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Lanarkshire, North (Mr. John Smith) about his Question No. 58. I accept that any Minister can answer for any Department. What I cannot understand is how it is possible for another Minister to instruct a Department over which he has no control.

Mr. Speaker

Again, that may be a very mysterious process, but it is not a matter for the Chair. These matters must be investigated by others means—there are the usual channels, and so on. It is not for the Chair to rule on the matter of the transfer of Questions.

Mr. Buchan

Further to the point of order. I recognise that this is not a matter under your instruction, as it were, Mr. Speaker, but it is very serious. It would seem that responsibility for the Scottish Development Department has been placed with another Minister. I realise that you cannot issue instructions, Mr. Speaker, but I think that the Leader of the House, who is present, had better explain to us the significance of what has happened concerning Question No. 58, which asks … the Secretary of State for Employment if he will cause the Scottish Development Department to make a special study of unemployment problems in Lanarkshire. Would you tell us whether there has been a transfer of responsibility?

Mr. Speaker

I could not possibly allow the Leader of the House to do what the hon. Gentleman asks. I allowed hon. Members to raise these matters because I realise that they are concerned about them very much. I said on a previous occasion that this problem of the transfer of questions has been constantly raised during the 26 years that I have been a Member of the House. It needs consideration, but I am sure that the Chair is not the proper body to consider it. It must be considered through the usual channels to ensure that reasonable methods are adopted for handling what has always been an awkward matter.