§ Mr. SpeakerBefore the right hon. Lady makes her statement, I wish to make a statement relating to Private Notice Questions.
As the House knows, the acceptance of these Questions lies entirely within my discretion. This is not always easy to exercise, and I am finding that it is becoming steadily more difficult when Questions relate to incidents in which lives have been lost.
In the sad world in which we live today, such fatalities are becoming increasingly common, whether by accident or design, and Members are understandably anxious that the House should be made aware of them where their constituents are involved. While I have the utmost sympathy with this anxiety, I do not think it is in the interests of the House that I should allow such Questions on every occasion on which it is sought to ask them, and I have not done so.
It is a convention that Mr. Speaker should not be questioned in the House about his reasons for allowing or disallowing a Private Notice Question, nor should the fact that he has disallowed one be referred to in the House.
But I nevertheless think it appropriate that I should state the guidelines which I try to follow. It is, in general, only to allow Private Notice Questions relating to fatalities, first, if the incident is of disaster proportions; secondly, if the incident appears to represent some totally new development; and, thirdly, if it seems that urgent action of a particular kind might be suggested to prevent other people suffering a similar fate. I try to exercise my discretion along those lines in each case as it arises.