§ Dr. Julian Lewis (New Forest, East)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. In the half-hour of Prime Minister's Question Time we only reached question 7. Was not one reason for that slow progress the Prime Minister's insistence on answering a question posed to him not this week but last week, by the leader of the Liberal Democrats? If that is to be in order in future, may we expect answers to all the questions we ask the right hon. Gentleman that are never answered? If so, we will not get beyond question 2.
§ Madam SpeakerIt is reasonable for the Prime Minister to correct something that he wanted to correct from last week. In any case, the hon. Gentleman is quite wrong: we may have reached question 7 on the Order Paper, but he has perhaps forgotten that the leader of his party put six questions, so that is seven plus six. The leader of the Liberal Democrat party also put two questions, so there were more than seven questions. I can add up too.
§ Mr. James Clappison (Hertsmere)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. In the exchanges during Prime Minister's Question Time about the early release of prisoners on home detention curfew—especially those convicted of grievous bodily harm—I believe I heard the Prime Minister say that that measure had the support of the official Opposition when it came before the House. I was the Conservative spokesman on the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and that measure certainly did not have the support of the Opposition at that time. The Standing Committee proceedings will bear that out, and will show that the official Opposition tried to exclude high-risk offenders.
§ Madam SpeakerAs the hon. Gentleman will understand, that is certainly not a point of order. It is a matter of political argument and debate.
§ Mr. William Ross (East Londonderry)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. During Prime Minister's questions, the right hon. Gentleman answered a question that was put to him last week. That seems to be a departure from normal procedure. Is it to be part of our procedure in future, so that we can all get our questions answered?
§ Madam SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman obviously did not hear me earlier. I hope that that will not be the case, but it seemed to me that the Prime Minister was correcting something that he had said last week. I obviously do not want that to happen weekly, and I shall make that known to the Prime Minister and to his Office. I hope that that will help the Opposition.