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§ Mr. D. N. Campbell-Savours (Workington)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, I wonder whether you might exercise discretion in favour of Members who wish to table questions. You will have noticed today that the Secretary of State for Transport, when replying to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker), introduced a blocking statement which would have the effect of preventing further questions being asked in relation to a part of his statement. If I recall correctly, my hon. Friend the Member for Perry Barr questioned the right hon. Gentleman about what happened during the course of the argument about the security scare.
May we, in view of what appears in Hansard at column 605 for 22 December last, ask you, Mr. Speaker, to consider whether you might be willing to accept questions and not treat that blocking statement as valid, remembering that the Secretary of State gave an assurance to the House on that earlier occasion, when he said:
there can he no constraint. We must get at the truth. I hope, however, that it may be possible at an earlier stage to give the House and the public more information if there are immediate lessons to be learnt".—[Official Report, Thursday 22 December, 1988; Vol. 144, c. 605.]Throughout his statement on 22 December the right hon. Gentleman gave repeated assurances that all the information would be made available to the House, and he did that again today. I am concerned lest the words he used —I think the record will show that he said, in effect, "I have nothing further to add to the statement that I made earlier in my opening remarks" —may prevent hon. Members from tabling questions.
§ Mr. SpeakerI will look carefully at the record in Hansard and consider what the hon. Member has said.