§ Ordered,
§ That Huw Irranca-Davies be discharged from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments and Mr Kevin Hughes be added.—[Charlotte Atkins.]
6.13 pm§ Mr. Paul Tyler (North Cornwall) (LD)On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I gave notice of my point of order to Mr. Speaker earlier and I understand that you may have a response to help the House on this matter.
498 On Tuesday, I participated in a debate in Westminster Hall on a subject that was described on the Order Paper as "Voting rights of honourable Members for Scottish seats". However, while the debate was taking place, I noticed that the Annunciator had transposed this to the simpler title of "West Lothian Question". The debate was then entitled "West Lothian Question" in the Official Report.
§ As you will appreciate, Mr. Deputy Speaker, if such a change occurs and what appears on the Order Paper and what happens in this Chamber or, indeed, Westminster Hall is reported quite differently in Hansard, that could be very misleading. I wish to know on whose authority and by what means the change was made.
I attempted to table a question to find out who could take that decision only to find, on the advice of the Table Office, that there was no one to whom I could pose it. The Father of the House, who also participated in the debate and has a special proprietary interest in the phrase "The West Lothian Question", was taken by surprise, and I suspect that the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray), who instigated the debate, was taken by surprise too. I understand that the Chairman of the Westminster Hall sitting at the time was also taken by surprise.
Can you tell us, Mr. Deputy Speaker, who was responsible for the change, on whose authority it was made, and whether there may be important lessons for the future, especially on establishing a precedent about the way in which hon. Members might be misled? I have taken this early opportunity to seek clarification.
§ Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con)Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. As the instigator, if that is the right expression, of the debate, I have to admit that I had a brief discussion before it with the Hansard Reporter, who asked me whether I thought it more appropriate to use the full title of the debate—"Voting rights of honourable Members for Scottish seats"—or to abbreviate it in one way or another. I made the point to him that I thought that "West Lothian Question" was not exactly identical to the subject that we were debating and that it might be clearer simply to use the full title. I suspect that for the sake of brevity Hansard decided to abbreviate the title to something that approximated very much to the subject that we were discussing, but which was definitely not an accurate representation of it.
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Michael Lord)I am grateful to the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Mr. Tyler) for giving notice of his point of order. When a debate title is quite long, it is the responsibility of the duty editor of the Official Report to decide on an appropriate abbreviation to use at the head of the columns in the printed volume. I agree that it would have been better to stick much more closely with the words on the Order Paper. The Editor of Hansard has instructed his staff accordingly. In the case of this debate, the heading will be changed in the bound volume.