HC Deb 25 November 1975 vol 901 cc678-80
Mr. Spearing

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. It will be within the recollection of the House that the Leader of the House, in accordance with the recommendation of the Scrutiny Committee, recommended that we consider Documents R/2102 and R/2447 of 1975 from the European Community as part of the debate today. This is understandable, particularly in view of the Scrutiny Committee's recommendation. The second document concerns Community economic guidelines for 1976, and it has been debated in this House twice before for an hour and a half.

However, this is the first time when the record of such documents being part of the debate has neither been part of the Question nor part of the rubric on the Order Paper. I hope that this difficulty may be got over in some way, otherwise there will be no record in the official Journal or in this debate that the documents have been dealt with in this way.

The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Edward Short)

Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. I announced in the Business Statement last Thursday that these two EEC documents were relevant to the debate. I did this in accordance with two recommendations from the Scrutiny Committee. The first recommendation was with regard to Document R/2102. In its 33rd Report the Scrutiny Committee recommended that the document, which dealt with measures necessary to combat a recession, should be taken into account in any debate concerning economic matters in general. In the Scrutiny Committee's 38th Report it made a similar recommendation with regard to Document R/2447, to the effect that it should be taken into account in the context of any future debate on the economy.

I looked into the possibility of putting them on the Order Paper today but was advised that this is never done during the debate on the Address. I announced them last Thursday, they appeared in Hansard, and I confirm today that they are relevant to the debate.

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Member for Newham, South (Mr. Spearing) notified me in advance of the point of order he wished to raise. I have been into the matter and I confirm what the Leader of the House has said. It is not the practice to publish this information in the form of a rubric on the Order Paper. As the right hon. Gentleman has said, it is on record in Hansard that these documents would be considered today.