FINANCE BILL (Hansard, 9 May 1977)

§ The Chairman
Before I call the first amendment, I have two announcements to make. The first is that I regret that an amendment to Clause 15 in the name of the Leader of the Liberal Party, the right hon. Member for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles (Mr. Steel), and his right hon. and hon. Friends was left off today's marshalled list of amendments. The amendment, No. 24A, has now been made available in typescript form in the Vote Office, and I have decided that it should be grouped for debate with Amendment No. 15.
Secondly, I have received two manuscript amendments, one to Government Amendment No. 1 and one to Government Amendment No. 10, in the names of the right hon. and learned Member for Surrey, East (Sir G. Howe) and some of his hon. Friends. I have decided to select these two amendments, and a typescript of them is also being made available. The first group of amendments will accordingly consist of Government Amendment No. 1, with the manuscript amendment; Amendments Nos. 2, 3 and 4; Government Amendment No. 10, with the manuscript amendment; and Amendment No. 11.

§ Mr. Douglas Crawford (Perth and East Perthshire)
On a point of order, Mr. Murton. My right hon. and hon. Friends and I tabled an amendment on 2nd May, which is on page 2289 of the Notice Paper, in identical terms to Amendment No. 3 in the name of the right hon. and learned Member for Surrey, East (Sir G. Howe).

§ The Chairman
That is correct. The names of the hon. Member for Perth and East Perthshire (Mr. Crawford) and his 924 right hon. and hon. Friends were added to that amendment.

§ Mr. Ian Gow (Eastbourne)
On a point of order, Mr. Murton. It will be within your knowledge that Hansard for last Friday is not available. Since we are to debate the Finance Bill on Tuesday and Thursday, can you tell us whether the Official Report for today will be available? It is essential that we should have it on Tuesday and Thursday if we are to continue a meaningful debate on the Bill.

§ The Chairman
I regret to inform the hon. Gentleman that that is not a matter for the Chair.

§ Sir Geoffrey Howe (Surrey, East)
Further to that point of order, Mr. Murton. I wish to stress the importance of the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Gow). I am glad to see that the Leader of the House is present. He will appreciate that in a Committee stage of this kind it is most important, particularly with debates that go into the following day, that we should have access to properly printed Hansard reports of proceedings. If Hansard is not available, will the Leader of the House give any assurance about the availability of typed versions? Is there any possibility of using the emergency printing presses that languish in the Basement and might be put to good use for this purpose? It is of great importance that we should have access to reports of this kind.

§ The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Michael Foot)
I fully appreciate the great inconvenience caused to the House by hold-ups in the provision of documents. We shall do everything possible to overcome it, but I cannot give any exact undertaking about what will happen. We shall do our best to meet the problem. I fully appreciate the importance of the matter.