HC Deb 20 February 1984 vol 54 cc558-9
36. Mr. Wareing

asked the Lord Privy Seal if he will arrange for the rota of oral questions to be amended to accommodate a period for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury.

The Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. John Biffen)

No, Sir.

Mr. Wareing

Does the Lord Privy Seal recall the abuse of Executive power in the House on 18 November 1983 when I attempted to relieve the distress of many disabled people by introducing a private Member's Bill? Does he agree that the Minister who was responsible for the Whipping on that day should be answerable in the House? Does he further agree that private Member's days, especially the abuse of Executive power on such days, should be fully investigated by the Select Committee on Procedure?

Mr. Biffen

I cannot share the hon. Gentleman's anxiety about there having been an abuse of Executive power on the date that he introduced his private Member's Bill. It seems to me that what happened then was exactly what had happened in the preceding Parliament on 21 February 1969 on the Disabled Persons' Pensions and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill introduced by my right hon. Friend the Member for Waveney (Mr. Prior). Consideration of such matters in a Procedure Committee is a possibility for the future.

Mr. Aitken

Although the idea of Chief Whip's questions has a superficial attraction for both sides of the House, will my right hon. Friend firmly resist it, not least because he will know better than anyone else that the House works only because the usual channels are an entirely private method of communication?

Mr. Biffen

I must agree with my hon. Friend. The virtues of the present convention of the usual channels are overwhelming, and it is that much more attractive than the prospect of the eloquence of my right hon. Friend the Chief Whip.

Mr. Foulkes

If the Lord Privy Seal will not look at that type of oral question, will he have another look at the position whereby Welsh Question Time is in a three-week cycle, whereas Scottish Question Time, about which twice as many hon. Members are concerned, and in which many subjects involve the Scottish Office, is in a four-week cycle? Does the Lord Privy Seal agree—

Mr. Speaker

Order. Is the hon. Member asking that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury should answer those questions?

Mr. Biffen

The powerful position of Scottish business in the affairs of the House excites general concern, but the matter raised by the hon. Gentleman could first be considered by the usual channels, and possibly ultimately by the Procedure Committee.