Points of Order (Hansard, 27 July 1999)

§ Mr. Quentin Davies (Grantham and Stamford)
On a point of order, Madam Speaker. I am grateful for the opportunity to raise a point of order that goes to the heart of the way in which the Government discharge their obligation to be straight with Parliament and the public.
Last Thursday at Treasury questions, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury said, in relation to the new individual savings accounts, or ISAs: In the first two months following their launch, savers invested more than £4 billion in them—more than twice as much as was invested in PEPs and TESSAs during exactly the same period last year."—[Official Report, 22 July 1999; Vol. 335, c. 1324.]
This morning there was a raft of press reports on the subject. I quote from page 11 of the Financial Times, which states: Gross sales of Isas in the three months to the end of June were £1.6 bn compared with £3.9 bn gross sales of Peps in the second quarter of 1998. [Interruption.] Hon. Members do not like—

§ Madam Speaker
That is a matter of argument. What is the point of order for me?

§ Mr. Davies
At first sight, at least, the right hon. Gentleman's statement to the House last Thursday is inconsistent with subsequent reports. Therefore there is great confusion in the press and among the public. I wonder, Madam Speaker, whether the Chief Secretary has given you any indication as to whether he 0intends to make clear in the House a matter that has been muddled by the Government's unhealthy obsession with spin-doctoring and with—

§ Madam Speaker
Order. The hon. Gentleman is raising policy matters with me. He knows very well that I have no responsibility for the comments made by Ministers or hon. Members. Certainly, I refuse to comment on reports in the national press. [Interruption.] Order. The hon. Gentleman is a Front-Bench Member, so if he wishes to pursue the matter when we come back, he is free to do so—he has the Order Paper—and if he wishes to pursue it while the House is in recess, he can make written representations to the Minister concerned.

§ Mr. Eric Forth (Bromley and Chislehurst)
On a point of order, Madam Speaker. Can you confirm that, at no time today, did you receive any request from the Deputy Prime Minister or the Minister for Transport to make a statement on the matter of air traffic control, and that Ministers were forced to come to the House only as a result of you granting a private notice question to my hon. Friend the Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin)?
I ask that because I thought that I heard on the radio this morning—as no doubt you did, Madam Speaker; I know that you are an assiduous listener to the radio in the morning—the Minister saying that she could not reveal anything to the public until she had revealed it to Parliament. Can you confirm that you received no such request from the Minister, until she was forced to come to the House by you, following a request from my hon. Friend?

§ Madam Speaker
I received no request from any Minister to make a statement today. I did receive a request 151 from a member of the Opposition for a private notice question. Of course, I used my judgment and the authority given to me by the House to grant that private notice question.

§ Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow)
On a point of order, Madam Speaker. In view of your sympathetic reception yesterday to the points of order raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Halifax (Mrs. Mahon) and myself in relation to the possible ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo and the dire pollution at Pancevo and other places in Serbia, and given that we shall not be back before the beginning of the Serbian winter, have you had any request from the Foreign Office to make a statement on that urgent matter?

§ Madam Speaker
I have not been informed by the Foreign Office or any other Department of State that it wishes to make a statement on Kosovo.

§ Mr. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington, North)
On a point of order, Madam Speaker. You will be aware of the huge public concern about the growing of genetically modified crops, and you may be aware of a statement in one of the newspapers this morning to the effect that the Government may be placing a cloak of secrecy over the location of GM crops being grown throughout Britain. Have you had any requests from a Minister to make such a statement and, in view of the seriousness of the possibility of secrecy surrounding crop trials, which have overwhelming implications for many people, do you not think that there should be such a statement?

§ Madam Speaker
I sometimes wish that I could tell the House what I think about it. On a more serious note, no, I have not received any request to make such a statement today.