§ Mr. MoateOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I apologise for raising this matter at this late stage of this Parliament, but I believe that it is something on which a considered ruling from Mr. Speaker would be helpful to the House. As the House knows, under the Price Commission Act of 1977 the Secretary of State is enabled, within three months of the making of a Price Commission report, to make orders and lay them before this House. My point concerns the Indication of Prices (Beds) Order 1978, SI 1716, on which the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments commented in its eleventh report of this Session. That order was made on 29 November, the last possible day open to the Secretary of State. In its report, the Joint Committee concluded that printed copies now being sold, in a corrected form, are not copies of the original order made on 29 November.
The Joint Committee further reported that the withdrawal of the first copy of the order and the laying of a second order, dated 8 December, could be interpreted as an implied revocation of the original order which was made on 29 November. If my first point is correct, it follows that the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection had wrongly certified to this 1183 House, and to the Journal Office, that the document it had deposited was a correct copy of the original order. As is known, a material change had been made to the original order.
This matter could have been put right had the Secretary of State agreed to with-draw that order, but in a parliamentary answer to me he implied that no action was to be taken on this point. He said merely that the comments of the Joint Committee would be noted for future reference.
In the circumstances, Mr. Speaker—I am in no way commenting on the merits of this order—I ask you to give consideration, when convenient, to this order and to the report, and advise on the two questions, namely, whether or not the order was wrongly certified and whether the first order had been revoked by the issuing of a second order.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman gave me written notice of his point of order. I can therefore give him a considered reply today. He called attention to the error contained in the copy of the Indication of Prices (Beds) Order, laid on 8 December 1978. This copy replaced, and purported to correct, an earlier copy of the order, laid on 29 November and later withdrawn. The Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, of which the hon. Gentleman is a member, has in its eleventh report drawn the special attention of the House 1184 to the instrument and I have inquired into the matter.
It was ruled on 15 May 1946, by Mr. Speaker Clifton Brown, that a copy of an order laid before the House should not only be complete but be correct. The Joint Committee has reported that the copy laid is not a true copy of the order as made. I have considered the Joint Committee's report and I must hold that the copy of the order laid on 8 December was not properly laid.
Accordingly, I rule that the order for the laying of this copy must be discharged and the copy withdrawn. Finally, the hon. Member asked me whether the withdrawal of the first copy and the laying of the second could be interpreted as an implied revocation of the order. This is a matter of law, on which it would not be proper for me to comment
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