§ Mr. Maxwell-HyslopOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I rise to ask whether it is possible for you to help the House make arrangements for questions to be asked at Question Time of the Chairman of the Committee of Selection in circumstances similar to the matter in which the Chairman of the Services Committee can be questioned about matters 1475 that are pertinent to the functions which that Committee performs for the House. We have an ambivalent situation here. We have the general rule that we may not refer on the Floor of the House to proceedings in a Committee which has not yet reported to the House.
On the other hand, we also have a custom that because the Services Committee performs not legislative or inquiry functions but functions intimately connected with the functioning of the House, the Chairman of that Committee answers questions. Although in form questions to the Chairman of the Committee may appear to be to a Minister, because of the accident that a Minister is Chairman of that Committee, the House has for many years accepted the convention that it wishes to be able to ask questions at Question Time about the functioning of that Committee.
The House has charged the Committee of Selection specifically with performing a most important function, namely, that of nominating the members of the Select Committees set up by this House. However, since that Committee has not carried out the task, this is a matter of grave concern on both sides of the House. In fact, it has resulted in a suspension of a function of the House, namely, the functioning of those Select Committees. This is not a matter which can rest as it is, because without any report from the Committee it is, as it were, sub judice, and it appears that nothing is happening. In truth, it is not the case that nothing is happening. The reason for this situation is that the Opposition Whips' Office is preventing the Members of one side of the Committee from doing the job which the House charged it with doing—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I am sorry to interrupt the hon. Gentleman. I have given him a fair run to make his point, but he and the House will know that I do not decide who answers questions. He will have to raise this matter with his right hon. Friend the Leader of the House.
§ Mr. Maxwell-HyslopMay I continue, Mr. Speaker, not on the point of responsibility for this situation—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. This is not my responsibility. But I am quite prepared to see the hon. Gentleman, although not 1476 this afternoon, to discuss this matter. I hope that that will help. The matter is not urgent, and even if it were there is nothing that I can do about it.