§ Mr. SpeakerFollowing the points of order on Wednesday last, I undertook to make a statement about a question addressed by the hon. Member for Monklands West (Mr. Clarke) to the Secretary of State for Scotland, which was transferred to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.
This question was tabled on 1 February to the Secretary of State for Scotland and came out No. 5 in the shuffle on that day. On 2 February it was transferred to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. I understand that, at the request of the hon. Gentleman, the Table Office checked twice with the Scottish Office that this transfer was exactly as intended, and this was confirmed. The position, therefore, remained as on the Order Paper on Wednesday last, namely, that the question stood addressed to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry at No. 39 and not to the Secretary of State for Scotland at No. 5. I can find nothing in this process to which exception can be taken on procedural grounds.
May I reaffirm two points which I made on Wednesday. The first is that, as my predecessors and I have said many times, the Chair has never had any responsibility for transfers between one Department and another: it is entirely the Government's responsibility to decide which Minister is to answer a question. The second is that the Table Office is concerned with establishing the responsibility of the Government for answering a question and therefore whether or not it is in order. It does its best to advise hon. Members on which Minister a question should be addressed to, but clearly it can have no responsibility for the choice of Minister to answer a question.
§ Mr. Robin Maxwell-Hyslop (Tiverton)Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Is it not open to any hon. Member, if he wishes so to do, before tabling a question at the Table Office to telephone the private office of the Minister or the Secretary of State of the Department concerned and ask whether the Minister or the Secretary of State will accept a question in the form in which he wishes to table it? If the answer were in the affirmative, the hon. Member would have a real grievance if the Minister then did not do so. Is not that protection open to any hon. Member— it is his choice, not that of the Table Office—in deciding to which Minister he should put his question?
§ Mr. SpeakerI understand that this has been done frequently.