Points of Order (Hansard, 25 January 1989)

§ Mr. Martin Flannery (Sheffield, Hillsborough)
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, which arises from Question Time. It is strange that we have to raise points of order about Question Time when Ministers about whom points of order are raised have left the Chamber. My point of order deals with much wider issues than my question No.1 on the Order Paper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many houses were built to be rented in the public sector in each successive year since 1975. The Minister referred me to the answer that was given yesterday to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr. Patnick), who was not here at Question Time. Having complained about that to the Minister and to you, I left the Chamber, obtained a copy of Hansard and went through it to find the answer to the question.
Hon. Members put down oral questions for specific reasons. They are quite different from written questions. The answers to written questions are not necessarily seen by all hon. Members. When we ask oral questions, the journalists, as well as hon. Members, hear the answers. My question depends to an extent on the answer that we should have been given and that therefore we should have heard. I found that there was no answer to the question in Hansard. I did not know what to do about it.
That leaves a great gap, and a serious question of principle is involved. If a Minister does not want to give an answer to a question because the answer would stimulate many other questions—as, in my opinion, the oral answer to my question would have done—he can easily ask one of his hon. Friends to ask a question and then refer to the answer to that question, which we should then have to find. We do not have the opportunity to put down the question again because we have not seen the answer to the other question.
The question to the hon. Member for Hallam has all the signs of having been prompted, because it has not yet been answered. Therefore, the answer to which the Minister referred me and on which my supplementary question depended, according to the Minister, has not yet been given because it has not yet been printed. That, together with the fact that the Minister has now left the Chamber and has not taken it into account, leads me to think that there has been sharp practice in order to avoid answering the question.

§ Mr. Speaker
I have allowed the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hillsborough (Mr. Flannery) to raise this point of order because it is a matter of considerable interest to the House, but it is not a point of order for me; it is a matter for the Minister. However, I sympathise with the hon. Gentleman, particularly as I understood the Minister to say that he had answered that question yesterday. I anticipated, therefore, that it would have been printed in Hansard. If it has not been printed, I think that the hon. Gentleman should take up the matter with the Minister.

Mr. Alan Williams (Swansea, West)
Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. I am grateful for what you have said, but it is a matter for you in another sense. The form of reply that was given by the Minister constitutes a block on further questions, in that he has nothing to add to the reply that he has already given. The Minister has 1040 done two things, the first of which, I accept, is not your responsibility. He has denied my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hillsborough (Mr. Flannery) the opportunity to ask an informed supplementary question. He has also possibly prevented any hon. Member from tabling further follow-up questions if the Table Office treats the "nothing to add" as a blocking reply. How do we deal with that?

§ Mr. Speaker
The answer that was given to the hon. Member for Hillsborough did not prevent a supplementary question from being asked. That kind of answer to a question does not mean that a block is imposed. Refusal to answer a question might constitute a block, but an answer referring to a previous reply does not constitute a block.

§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennett (Denton and Reddish)
Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. I understand that, if hon. Members hand in questions to the Table Office and an identical question has been answered, we cannot pursue the matter. This is not quite like that. On 10 January, the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hillsborough (Mr. Flannery) put his question into the raffle and was fortunate to come top of the list. The Table Office accepted on either Thursday or Monday—I have been unable to ascertain which day it was—a question for written answer which was in identical terms, and that was not treated as having priority for answer yesterday. It could have been answered on any day this week. However, the Department chose to answer it yesterday, but unfortunately the answer has not appeared in Hansard.
It seems to me to be an abuse of the House that an hon. Member can pick out another hon. Member's question, table it for a written answer and receive a written answer before the hon. Member who tabled an oral question receives a reply. The Minister did not check that my hon Friend the Member for Hillsborough had received an answer. He referred him simply to a written answer that can be found in the Library but not in Hansard. That seems to me to be sharp practice. Will you look into the matter and report back to the House, and certainly make it clear that this should not become common practice?

§ Mr. Flannery
Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. It is not sufficient to say to me that I should write to the Minister concerned. It is as clear as daylight that the Minister concerned did something that was totally wrong. He gave the impression that an answer to the question was available to me. He knew that I needed that answer in order to rephrase my question. He prevented every other hon. Member from asking supplementary questions about it. It has all the hallmarks of being very wrong. If it can be done to me, it can be done to any hon. Member.

§ Mr Speaker
I say again that I sympathise with the hon. Member for Hillsborough, but he must understand that I have no responsibility—sometimes I wish I did—for the answers that are given. I shall certainly look into the matter and satisfy myself, in so far as my responsibilities in the Table Office are concerned, that nothing untoward has happened. As I say, I have sympathy for the hon. Member and I shall do what I can.

§ Mr. D. N. Campbell-Savours (Workington)
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I raise it, having established that it is a matter for you after consulting widely among my colleagues. Yesterday, I asked the Prime Minister a 1041 question about a statement that had been made by the hon. Member for Thanet, South (Mr. Aitken) in which he said that the Security Service had fingered six Conservative Members of Parliament and questioned their reliability and suitability for office. When the Security Service took the decision to examine the backgrounds of those Conservative Members, they were taking into consideration questions of national security and they must have reached the conclusion that they should not see classified documents, or documents supplied to Ministers marked "Secret"
Those hon. Members may have applied for selection as members of Select Committees of the House of Commons. The Public Accounts Committee and the Select Committee on Defence receive, periodically, classified documents, as I have done as a member of the Public Accounts Committee. Occasionally we have had to return them to the Clerk at the end of the meeting. If those Conservative Members are not to be allowed to gain ministerial office because they may be classified as a security risk, I put it to you that, equally—if it were to be true—they should not be given access to classified documents as members of Select Committees.
I wonder, Mr. Speaker, whether you would take on board my suggestion that the material which the Prime Minister saw in relation to the six Members of Parliament be given to the members of the Committee of Selection so that they can establish whether they believe that those Members are fit to see classified documents as members of the Public Accounts Committee or the Select Committee on Defence.
This is not a light request. It is an important matter. We cannot have an inconsistency. If a Member of the House of Commons is not fit to be a Minister because he should not have access to classified material, I put it to you, Mr. Speaker, that he is not fit to be a member of a Select Committee which sees classified material. The only Committee which can decide upon that is the Committee of Selection. Perhaps you will consider the matter.

§ Mr. Speaker
The hon. Gentleman should raise that matter with the Leader of the House. It is not a matter for me what answer the Prime Minister gives to questions. Like the hon. Gentleman, I have consulted widely and have come up with absolutely nothing. It is a legitimate question for the hon. Gentleman to put to the Leader of the House tomorrow.