Hon. Member for Tiverton (Comments) (Hansard, 8 November 1984)

§ Mr. A. J. Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed)

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. When the comments yesterday of the hon. Member for Tiverton (Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop) were drawn to my attention, I notified him that I would raise the matter today. I do not know whether he received my message. On the hon. Gentleman's tortuous route, he claimed that the Select Committee on Procedure had arranged its day of sitting to suit the convenience of the leader of the Liberal party who scarcely ever bothered to turn up"—[Official Report, 7 November 1984; Vol. 67, c. 113.] [HON. MEMBERS: "Where is he?"] My right hon. Friend is, perhaps, discussing the matter with the hon. Member for Tiverton, who also is not present. However, I must confess that my right hon. Friend is visiting the right hon. Member for Colchester, South and Maldon (Mr. Wakeham), the Government Chief Whip, in hospital in Brighton.

As my right hon. Friend was not a member of the Committee, he would not have been able to take part in its meetings had he turned up, and the Committee did not arrange its meetings to suit my right hon. Friend's convenience. The hon. Member for Tiverton said that I had requested a meeting on a particular afternoon but had not turned up. On checking the record, I discovered that I had attended eight of the 10 Committee meetings—exactly the same number as those attended by the hon. Member for Tiverton.

In referring to the record of which hon. Members attended which meetings, the hon. Gentleman also referred to those parts of the Committee's proceedings that had not been reported to the House. Conversely, and for our assistance if this matter is raised again, as no doubt it will be, is it not true that the aspect of the Committee's proceedings referred to yesterday—the report made by the Committee, in the same document as its report on short speeches, of the meeting that took place on Tuesday 17 July 1984—was reported to the House?

The report contains the words Motion made and Question proposed, That the Committee do inquire into Public Bill Procedure. It then reports that an amendment was proposed to the Question, to add the words and simultaneously into Opposition Time. The Division on that Question was recorded, with my vote cast in favour and six votes, including that of the hon. Member for Tiverton, cast against.

The hon. Member for Tiverton was not only inaccurate and grossly misleading in what he said but out of order. However, it was in order to refer to that part of the report of the Committee that stated that its decision at this stage was not to inquire into the subject of Opposition time.