HC Deb 23 February 1981 vol 999 c652
Mr. Freud

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Would you be good enough to explain by what strange alchemy I was not called to ask question 33?

Mr. Speaker

I shall explain it, very slowly. The hon. Member should realise that the Secretary of State for Education and Science, to whom his question 33 is addressed, is not down to answer questions today. We therefore turned to the Minister who was first on the Order Paper to answer questions. We then went on to questions to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and then to those to the Paymaster General. It so happened that I went back then to the questions to the Secretary of State for Energy. If we had exhausted the questions to the Secretary of State for Energy, the first Minister on the Order Paper, I should have called the hon. Member to ask question 33.