§ Mr. Andrew Robathan (Blaby)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. In the Chamber yesterday afternoon during the speech by my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Mr. Maples), the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the hon. Member for Leeds, West (Mr. Battle), asked him to confirm that, during the state visit of the President of China,
no one was charged or countercharged, and no one has reported having been arrested or charged as a result of the visit".—[Official Report, 22 November 1999; Vol. 339, c. 378.]That did not ring true, so I went back to Hansard and discovered that on 5 November, at column 366, the Minister of State, Home Office, the hon. Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Clarke), in a written answer to the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew), said that within the Metropolitan police area alone, 15 people had been arrested in connection with that visit.
§ Madam SpeakerWhat does that point of order have to do with me?
§ Mr. RobathanI wondered how that discrepancy between two ministerial answers can be corrected.
§ Madam SpeakerIt can be corrected by either tabling a further parliamentary question or an early-day motion drawing attention to it. That has been done before.