§ Mr. Terry Dicks (Hayes and Harlington)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. I wish for guidance relating to incidents that occurred in my constituency during the past two days. You will recall that Heathrow is in my constituency and we had a mortar bomb attack on Wednesday evening. I wrote to you on Thursday, asking for you to give consideration for me to ask a private notice question, which you, in your wisdom, turned down. I wrote to you in that way because I understood that the Home Secretary was not prepared to come to the House and make a statement.
As you know, there was another mortar bomb attack last night in another part of the airport in my constituency. If the Home Secretary is not prepared to come here to make a statement, for whatever reasons he may feel valid, and you decline, in your wisdom, to allow me a private notice question which would make him come to the Chamber, how can I raise issues on behalf of my constituents about that major situation if I cannot get access to the House?
Those issues are being debated in the public domain, but we are being prevented from debating them here in the House of Commons.
§ Madam SpeakerIt is not my usual habit to grant a private notice question on a matter of terrorist bombings, which involve the national security, but I would remind the hon. Gentleman that neither the submission of a private notice question nor its subsequent rejection by me should be referred to publicly.
I understand the difficulties that the hon. Gentleman may well be placed in. He wants to keep his constituents informed, and to give them some confidence in these matters. The Home Secretary of course did make an announcement during the debate on Wednesday evening. The hon. Gentleman might, at that time, have tried to put 522 questions or involve himself in that debate, but at present I am not inclined to grant a private notice question on matters of security.
§ Mr. DicksFurther to that point of order, Madam Speaker. First, I apologise to you for making public that decision. I was not aware that it was a confidential decision. The reason that I did not raise the subject in the Chamber was that I was not here at that time, but the Home Secretary made a statement only on the facts as they were coming in. I wanted a statement the next day, when the picture was becoming clearer.
§ Madam SpeakerI do understand. The Home Secretary did not make a statement. He in fact made an announcement. He informed the House of the factual occurrences at the time.
§ Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover)Well, it would have been difficult for anyone to engage in a debate with the Home Secretary the other night when the House was discussing the finality of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989, because he told the House what had happened in the last two minutes of his statement, and he used it for another purpose, as we all know. The hon. Member could not have questioned him at all, and neither could anyone else.
It used to be the case that, if there were crises of that type, and major disruptions, there were statements in the House. I find it very strange and disturbing that this Government, as opposed to any other, have decided in recent years that it is not the done thing to talk about such matters as bombing.
The public know that that is a big issue, and the House of Commons is supposed to represent the views of the people outside. I cannot understand why the Government can be very selective about those issues that they want to talk about, but matters of major importance—irrespective of the issue and the side that anyone might take—are not debated in the House at all. Therefore, I would have thought that it was incumbent on the Home Secretary or one of the Ministers to put themselves at that Dispatch Box to answer questions about those major matters.
§ Madam SpeakerTo make the matter clear, I may tell the hon. Gentleman that I have not been told by any Minister that he seeks to make a statement.
§ Rev. Martin Smyth (Belfast, South)Further to that point of order, Madam Speaker. On a day on which we are to debate civil rights and disabilities, I am sure that you and the rest of the House share my opinion about the taking of the basic civil right in Northern Ireland last evening, when a police constable relaxing in his pastime of greyhound sport was murdered. That is a much more serious aspect. I know that the House, on behalf of all the people of Northern Ireland, would wish to express its sympathy.
§ Madam SpeakerI am sure that we all endorse the hon. Gentleman's sentiments.
§ Rev. Ian Paisley (Antrim, North)Further to that point of order, Madam Speaker. There was a series of outrages throughout Northern Ireland last night, including that to which my hon. Friend referred, yet no statement has been forthcoming from the relevant Minister. The time has come for a statement to be made to the House on matters that are 523 in the public domain and of real concern, and which ought to be debated in the House. Where else should the nation's difficulties be debated than in the House of Commons?
§ Madam SpeakerI am sure that those who are present on the Treasury Bench this morning have heard the hon. Gentleman's remarks, and they may well take note of them.