§ Mr. Paul Flynn (Newport, West)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. This matter relates to your role as the defender of Back-Bench Members and concerns whether oral questions are in order. On Tuesday this week, in answer to a question of mine seeking information, the Secretary of State for Employment said:
I agree with that part of paragraph 78 of the Employment Select Committee's report published on 10 February which refers to the hon. Gentleman's question."—[Official Report, 19 April 1994; Vol. 241, c. 734.]Is it reasonable to expect even the most diligent hon. Member to be familiar with every part of every paragraph of every report of every Select Committee that has been before this House? As you rightly call hon. Members to order when our questions are not entirely related to the original question, will you consider calling Ministers to order when their answers are irrelevant and evasive?
§ Madam SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman may ponder on whether it is possible for even the most diligent Speaker to be familiar with all the reports and printed questions that appear on the Order Paper. Had he given me notice of his question, I should have done research on it and been able to give him an answer. It is extremely difficult to refer to Hansard and various reports and, however diligent the Speaker may be, I cannot familiarise myself with all of those.
§ Mr. Peter Luff (Worcester)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. You may have been aware of a certain commotion during Prime Minister's questions. A number of hon. Members became aware of what they thought was a flash from a camera in the Press Gallery. Will you conduct an urgent inquiry to establish whether that was the case? Will you also take the opportunity to remind all those who observe our proceedings that still camera photography is not allowed in this place?
§ Madam SpeakerI am always riveted by the proceedings in the Chamber and am not interested in what goes on elsewhere. However, I have interested myself in the matter and made inquiries. It was a foreign camera woman who did not understand our regulations and took some film. The film has since been confiscated. Is everybody happy?
§ Mr. Robert Ainsworth (Coventry, North-East)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. You have repeatedly made representations to hon. Members in the recent past for short questions and short answers. While I accept that you have a difficult job in trying to keep the House in order and I could even accept that, on occasions, it is necessary to treat the Prime Minister differently from other hon. Members, I do not believe that I am exaggerating when I say that the first answer that the Prime Minister gave to my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Monklands, East (Mr. Smith) this afternoon was a full two minutes in duration and his second reply was a full one and half minutes. When the tactics are clearly not to answer the questions, but to bore the House into submission, surely you can give us some protection.
§ Madam SpeakerAs the hon. Gentleman is aware, I am not responsible for comments made by the Prime Minister or any other Member in the House. When questions are asked—I hope that they are not long questions—I like to see brisk answers. I would not have said that the Prime Minister's response was boring to any section of the House. I thought that both sides of the House were interested in what he said in response to a perfectly proper question.
§ Mr. George Foulkes (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. I agree with you—I thought that both replies were interesting. They were so interesting that many of us wanted to ask many supplementary questions on them. That is why I seriously ask you to consider the following. You rightly say that Question Time should have cut and thrust, and fast repartee, with quick questions and quick responses. If the Prime Minister does as he did today and makes two important statements during Question Time, not only do we lose that cut and thrust, but we lose the opportunity to ask supplementary questions. It would be better if you could guide the Leader of the House and the Prime Minister to make statements at the appropriate time, rather than making them during Prime Minister's Question Time.
§ Madam SpeakerI am sure that the entire House gives me support in attempting to make good progress. I have been keeping records. Since I made my statement, things have improved. But this last week, as I mentioned the other day, I have been disappointed. I hope that what I have said will be taken on board by Back Benchers as well as Front Benchers in the coming week.