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§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennett (Denton and Reddish)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Will you look at what happened on the Third Reading of the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Bill last week? As I understand it, no Privy Councillor moved the motion on Queen's consent during the process of Third Reading. If that is so, there is some 777 doubt about the validity of Third Reading. According to page 1038 of "Erskine May", if Queen's consent is not indicated on Third Reading, that Third Reading is not valid. I gather that that happened in about 1851 on a railways Bill, which had to return for a further Third Reading. There was one other precedent when a Bill went to the other place, having not received Queen's consent. It made some progress there before the mistake was found. A different course of action was taken.
I hope that you will look into the matter, Mr. Speaker, because it was a controversial issue. I should think that if Queen's consent has not been given properly, the matter should come back to the House to be resolved.
§ Mr. SpeakerI certainly give the hon. Gentleman that undertaking.