HC Deb 12 May 1971 vol 817 cc373-4
35. Mr. Tam Dalyell

asked the Lord President of the Council if he will move to appoint a Select Committee to study the methods of allocating to Members visitors tickets in the Public Gallery.

The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. William Whitelaw)

The Services Committee would, I think, be the appropriate Select Committee to consider this. If there is a general wish amongst Members that the present system of allocation should be reviewed, I will certainly ask the Committee to do so.

Mr. Dalyell

In view of the present system whereby two tickets are sent to us every so often, and we may be on a parliamentary delegation to Timbuktu at the time—[Interruption.] I was giving a charitable reason for pocketing the tickets. Many are pocketed, and it is a little hard on those people who travel from far and wide and want to hear our debates but who are kept waiting outside, often when there are vacant seats in the Gallery.

Mr. Whitelaw

Wherever hon. Members may go on delegations, it is true that sometimes the Gallery is not absolutely full at Question time. The difficulty arises from the fact that some Members take their automatic allocation of Strangers Gallery admission orders but neither use them nor return them to the Admission Order Office for reallocation to other Members. Perhaps I might take this opportunity to remind hon. Members that it would be most helpful if they would return unwanted admission orders as soon as possible to the Admission Order Office.

Dame Irene Ward

Will my right hon. Friend tell the hon. Member for West Lothian (Mr. Dalyell) that the Admission Order Office does everything it possibly can, and that I should be glad if he would stay in Timbuktu?

Mr. Whitelaw

I must point out to my hon. Friend that the hon. Gentleman has not gone there yet; nor would I in any way wish to discuss or argue with her the relative merits of what he ought to do if he goes there.

I entirely agree that the Admission Order Office does everything it can to help. All I am saying is that it would be able to help still more if hon. Members would return unwanted orders.

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