§ Mr. FauldsOn a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I tabled for answer on 3rd April a Question in the following terms:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether, following the laying before Parliament of Class X of the Supply Estimates for 1978–79, she will specify the details of the breakdown in distribution of the additional £1 million made available to assist with the preservation of the national heritage which she announced on 26th October 1977.I received an answer on that day which read,I must ask my hon. Friend to await the laying before Parliament of the Supply Estimates in a few days' time."—[Official Report, 3rd April 1978; Vol. 947, c. 53.]I raise this matter because that answer is wrong in fact. The Estimates were actually laid in Votes and Proceedings on 23rd February 1978, a copy of which I have in my hand. Those Supply Estimates include Class X. Because of the printers' strike, they were not available to the House in printed form.The Answer is also wrong in principle, because how can it possibly be right that these figures are kept from the House when the parties concerned have the figures and the moneys made available to them from 1st April? One of the galleries concerned has already announced its intention of disbursing some of the moneys for a particular painting that it wants for its collection. If the parties concerned know the figures, 462 why should we in Parliament be deprived of them? This is where the terms of the answer are so unsatisfactory—apart from being wrong in fact.
Those of us wishing to put a malicious interpretation on this Answer—and I hope that there are not many of us—would, perhaps, accept the printers' strike as an excuse for not letting the House have these figures, except that the parties already have them, but there could be a more malicious interpretation.
I have a Press notice from the Department that is an invitation to a Press conference. It reads:
You are invited to attend, or be represented at, a Press Conference to be given by Lord Donaldson, Minister for the Arts, at 4 p.m. on Thursday 6th April 1968 at the above address—that is, the Department of Education and Science—on the Supply Estimates for the Arts and Museums in 1978–79.The notice goes into some detail about what will happen there.I raise this matter because not only have I been given a factually incorrect answer but it is obviously obfuscatory in intention, and this could not possibly be anything other than an abuse of the procedures of the House. It is on this ground that I raise the matter with you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Oscar Murton)I have heard what the hon. Gentleman has said. I dispute that it is a point of order at all and it is certainly not a matter for the Chair.