§ Mike Gapes (Ilford, South)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I seek your advice. At the end of last week, I—and, I presume, all other Members of Parliament—received a letter from the police federations of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland about the meetings being held today. The letter said that the meeting with London Members of Parliament would be held at 4.30 this afternoon at the QEII centre. However, at Prime Minister's Question Time, the hon. Member for Uxbridge (Mr. Randall) alleged that Labour Members were not prepared to meet members of the Metropolitan police. I have checked with my office, and have found that we received an e-mail at 12.12 today to change the arrangements for some regional meetings. However, the e-mail listed no changes to the time and place of the London meeting. How can I place on the record a correction to the allegation made about Labour MPs?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman has made not a bad job of putting that on the record.
§ Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I do not have chapter and verse details of the Scotland Act 1998 in front of me, but some of us endured many hours listening to Mr. Donald Dewar and Mr. Henry McLeish telling us how much consultation there would be between Edinburgh and London. My question to my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary was very careful. I did not ask him to ask my hon. Friend the Paymaster General and my right hon. Friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury to do anything, let alone to meddle. My question was different: I asked what conclusions and lessons could be drawn from a situation in which the giddy costs involved were escalating. Local authorities are becoming more and more skint because those costs come out of their finite budgets.
Given that I asked that lessons be learned, and not that Ministers should do something, am I not entitled to ask that they at least take an interest in what has happened?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman knows that I am not responsible for the Minister's reply.