§ Mr. SpeakerOn 10 July I made a statement adding a rider to my predecessor's ruling quoted at page 254 of Erskine May's " Parliamentary Practice ", where it was stated that it was
not in order for a Member to obtain or quote during a current sitting the record made for the Official Report of the remarks of any other Member.I then said that in cases where an hon. Member was informed that he had been personally attacked by another hon. Member in the Chamber when he himself was absent he could apply to the Editor of Hansard to see the transcript of the speech concerned and the matter would be referred to me for my personal consideration. Access to the passage referred to would be given only on my personal authority.My ruling was given at a time when copies of the Official Report were not readily available on the following day and had not been so available for some time. I had intended to restrict the new procedure which I suggested to the situation which then obtained, namely, the absence of printed versions of Hansard on the following day. I think that I ought to make it clear that, when copies of the printed version of Hansard are again immediately available day by day, I propose to revert to the strict position laid down by my predecessor as described in " Erskine May "