§ Mr. SpeakerI have a brief statement to make to the House. There has recently been a recurrence of the practice of tabling what we call "open questions" to departmental Ministers. These are questions which do not disclose the subject matter that Members intend to pursue in their supplementary questions. I have in mind questions such as "When does the Lord Privy Seal next intend to meet his colleagues in the European Community?", which deliberately leaves open the particular point that the hon. Member wishes to raise arid does not give Ministers an opportunity to prepare a considered reply. Nor does it give the House a chance to have notice of the question it is intended to ask.
I remind the House that I gave a ruling on 23 April 1980 that when open questions are addressed to any Minister other than the Prime Minister, I shall call the Minister to reply but will not call hon. Members to ask any supplementary questions. The intention is to guard the Order Paper. If the House wants to switch to an open question system it ought to do so after debate and not by accident.
§ Later
§ Mr. Patrick Cormack (Staffordshire, South-West)Further to your admirable ruling on open-ended questions, Mr. Speaker, will you consider extending that to open-ended questions to the Prime Minister so that we may have more lively and more sensible Prime Minister's question times?
§ Mr. SpeakerIt is high time that the House looked at the open question at Prime Minister's Question Time. The House itself has decided against open questions, but as long as hon. Members continue to put that kind of question on the Order Paper I am obliged to call it. I am reluctant to take on responsibilities that I think belong to the House.