PROCEDURE OF THE HOUSE. (Hansard, 23 June 1943)

THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (THE EARL OF ONSLOW)
My Lords, I beg to move that the Second Report of the Select Committee be now considered. Your Lordships will remember that a short time ago we had a considerable debate on the Report of the Select Committee on Procedure in regard to a possible alteration in the practice regarding starred questions. Various views were put forward in that debate. A considerable number of noble Lords were doubtful about the proposal which was then laid before the House, so much so that your Lordships proceeded to a Division and a reference back of the proposals to the Committee was decided upon. That took place, and the Committee have met again and discussed the question. They have come to the conclusion which they now venture to lay before your Lordships. In doing so I think I may say that I am voicing the views of the Committee— although there are not many of them here to contradict me—when I state that the recommendation which they now lay before your Lordships represents what they believe to be the general feeling of your Lordships' House.
The recommendation is briefly that things should remain as they are, and that starred questions should be continued, but the practice which was laid down twenty-five years ago should be adhered to, in that they should so far as possible be confined to mere question and answer. If your Lordships then wished to continue the debate you should adopt one of the many other forms of introducing questions to your Lordships' House, but the starred questions should remain as they are, consisting of question and answer, with very limited scope for explanation. I beg to move that the Report of the Select Committee be now considered.

§ VISCOUNT CECIL OF CHELWOOD
My Lords, I do not desire to oppose the Motion at all but I do wish very much to represent to the Government and to my noble friend the Chairman of Committees that anything that increases the 102 opportunities for the ordinary member of this House—by which I mean a member who is not a member of the Government or a member of past Governments but just a member of the House of Lords— anything that increases his interest in the proceedings of the House, or gives him an opportunity for taking part in those proceedings, is immensely to be desired. Because we cannot conceal from ourselves if we are at all honest that the present condition of the attendance at your Lordships' meetings is not very creditable to the Peerage as a whole. It is no exaggeration to say that less than 10 per cent. of the Peers habitually attend, or practically ever attend, except on some very-exceptional occasion. Therefore I am personally a very strong friend of anything that can be devised which enables them to feel that they are taking part in the government of the country, and not coming here merely to listen to speeches. I just wished to make that observation for the consideration of those who have the control of these matters.

THE EARL OF ONSLOW
I am sure we all agree with my noble friend. I do not know whether he wishes to convey that the Report of the Committee would curtail the opportunities of noble Lords to take part in the business of your Lordships' House.

§ VISCOUNT CECIL OF CHELWOOD
No, I was personally in favour of the original suggestion of the Committee, and that would, in my view, have increased the opportunity for useful and interesting work to be done by the members of this House.

THE EARL OF ONSLOW
I do not know whether I am in agreement with my noble friend, because that original suggestion was to confine questions to a quarter of an hour. Would that increase the interest of your Lordships in the proceedings?

§ LORD DAVIES
My Lords, I am sorry the Committee have come to the conclusion that they have done, and I cannot help feeling that they permitted extraneous matter to be introduced into the whole question. The matter is a very simple one; it is simply a question of the convenience of members of the Government who are to answer questions and of members of the House who ask them, and whether the starred questions should have 103 priority on the Order Paper so that they may be disposed of at the beginning of business. That obviously is for the convenience not only of Ministers but of members as well. When starred questions were introduced by Lord Curzon, the Leader of the House, twenty-five years ago he laid down that they were to come first on the Order Paper, so that they could be disposed of. So there is no question of principle involved, it is simply a question of convenience and expediency. In the last debate all sorts of extraneous considerations were introduced. We were said to be aping the procedure in another place and destroying the atmosphere of this House. All sorts of entirely irrelevant considerations were introduced into that debate. I sincerely hope that in spite of the recommendation now made the Committee may yet proceed to follow what is obviously a sensible procedure in the interests of Ministers on the Front Bench—-that was why Lord Curzon introduced it in the first instance—and for the convenience of the ordinary members of the House.

THE EARL OF ONSLOW
My Lords, I beg to move that the Report of the Select Committee be agreed to.