§ Mr. Tam Dalyell (West Lothian)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I gave you notice that I intended to raise this matter. I believe that we all understand that the transfer of questions between Ministers is a matter for the Government and not for you. I put it to you, however, that the transfer of questions from a senior Government Minister—in this case, the Lord President of the Council—to the House of Commons Commission, of which you Mr. Speaker, are Chairman, to be answered by the right hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Mr. Bottomley) is a slightly different matter.
I recently tabled a question concerning the cost of the visit to MOTEC, Livingston, by members of the Select Committee on Employment—my hon. Friends the Members for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Mr. Golding), Glasgow, Maryhill (Mr. Craigen) and Thurrock (Dr. 932 McDonald). As a follow-up, I naturally wanted some assessment from the Government of the result of that visit to MOTEC, which is threatened with closure.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The hon. Gentleman has been very ingenious in the way that he has from time to time raised the question of MOTEC. However, his point of order is on the transfer of a question. He cannot go into details. I am afraid that questions are transferred and it is not my responsibility. In this case, the question is transferred to the body responsible for financing the journey.
§ Mr. DalyellMay I try my luck just a little further? It is clear that in this case the right hon. Member for Middlesbrough has no responsibility in the supplementary but the Minister has, because he co-ordinates policy.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. None of us has any knowledge of what a supplementary question will be. Only the hon. Member has that knowledge and he will reveal it at the right moment, which will be some time next week I believe.
§ Mr. McQuarrieOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Can you give the House your guidance on a matter arising out of the answer to Question 25, given by my hon. Friend the Solicitor-General for Scotland to my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries (Sir H. Monro)? During the exchanges, the right hon. Member for Glasgow, Craigton (Mr. Millan) rose on two consecutive occasions to ask my hon. Friend a supplementary question. Can you advise the House, Mr. Speaker, whether this is a precedent or whether the right hon. Gentleman was wrong to have two bites at the cherry?
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I do not mind confiding to the House that the policy that I follow is that if there are two bites at the cherry from the Front Bench, someone from the Back Benches suffers, as I assume that the Front Bench speaks for the party as a whole.