HC Deb 20 February 1973 vol 851 cc230-1
Mr. Stonehouse

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Has it occurred to you that a number of Opposition Members whose Questions to the Prime Ministers were linked with No. Q2 were not allowed to ask supplementaries? Increasingly we discover that only a few of the Questions put down to the Prime Minister are reached for reply in the House. As the number of Questions to the Prime Minister is now at least as great as that to any other Minister, ought not consideration to be given to the Prime Minister's Questions being taken at three o'clock instead of at 3.15 p.m.?

Mr. Speaker

That is not a matter for me. It is a matter for discussion between the usual channels. I thought that I might get into trouble today. I carried out the wish of the Select Committee on Parliamentary Questions which said in paragraph 25 of its report: … they hope that Mr. Speaker will exercise his discretion in limiting the number of supplementary Questions arising from identical Questions irrespective of when the Questions were originally tabled. I have followed that advice.

Sir F. Bennett

Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. In the context of your last remark and the question which prompted it, would you give further consideration to a practice which seems to have started today and which could frequently arise if other hon. Members resorted to it, namely, of asking supplementaries which are in no way connected with the main Question and your permitting them to stand in the way of other hon. Members who have tabled Questions? If I am right in this context, would you say, further, whether there is a special exemption for the Leader of the Opposition?

Mr. Speaker

Nothing happened today which was out of order.

Mr. William Hamilton

May I make further representations to you, Mr. Speaker, on the same point? The original Question which gave rise to these points of order was connected with a speech by the Prime Minister about very wide-ranging matters concerned with economic policy. Would not it be in accordance with the spirit of the recommendation of the Select Committee if you ensured that hon. Members who had tabled Questions —even identical Questions—took preference over every other hon. Member, including the Leader of the Opposition? Is not it the case that the Leader of the Opposition can come in at the end of the chances given to every other hon. Member who has taken the trouble to table a Question? It is extremely unfair to at least half-a-dozen hon. Members on the Opposition side of the House.

Mr. Speaker

That is an interesting point of view which probably should be sorted out elsewhere.

Mr. Bidwell

Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. You will know that it is rare for me to raise a point of order when you are in the Chair. However, you named the Questions which were to be linked with Question No. Q2—[Interruption.] You indicated the other Questions which you proposed to call—at least that was what I understood—

Mr. Speaker

Order. It is the Prime Minister who announces which Questions he will link together, not the Chair.

Mr. Faulds

Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. You will know that it is not so rare for me to raise points of order. Would it not expedite Question Time if right hon. and hon. Members on the Government benches listened with the same quietness and courtesy to important questions asked by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition as we on the Opposition benches do to the non-answers of the Prime Minister?

Mr. Speaker

This is an occasion when it is not difficult for me to be impartial. I think that it is six of one and half a dozen of the other.