§ Mr. HordernOn a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The House is in some difficulty with regard to the Dividends Bill, which is the last motion on the Order Paper for today.
Yesterday, when the motion appeared, it was objected to—no doubt for very good reasons—by one of my hon. Friends. As I understand it, what should have happened was that the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the House should have tabled the motion again today and made it exempted business in order that the House could reach a decision whether amendments could be tabled to the Bill.
We are now in the position of being unable to table any amendments or new clauses to the Bill. I know that many of my hon. Friends have a host of amendments which they would like to table. This means that after Second Reading, if the Government stick to their proposal to have a Committee stage immediately afterwards, the Government will be unable to consider in detail the amendments which my colleagues wish to place on the Order Paper.
In view of that fact, would you Mr. Deputy Speaker, consider making representations to the Leader of the House so that the House should be properly treated and so that there is a proper and substantial interval between the Second Reading and the Committee stage of this Bill?
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Oscar Murton)I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving me notice of the point of order which he wished to raise.
The subject of Government proceedings and procedure is nothing to do with the Chair. On the other hand, should this motion be passed, the Chairman of Ways and Means will be prepared to consider any manuscript amendments which are tabled, but it would be helpful if the Chairman of Ways and Means could be given some prior notice so that there 1378 is an opportunity to consider them before they are tabled.
§ Mr. RidleyFurther to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Can you tell us the means by which we are to give the Chairman of Ways and Means notice of such amendments? Are we to hand them to him? Can you tell us by which means other hon. Members will be circularised so that they, too—and, of course, the Government—will know what those amendments are? It would somewhat restrict the scope of debate if neither the Government nor the rest of the House knew what the amendments were. There must be some means whereby the amendments could be circulated for all to see.
§ Mr. Deputy SpeakerI must amplify what I said. The question arises if the motion is not passed. That, I think, is understood by the House. Manuscript amendments would be handled in the normal way.