HL Deb 16 March 1999 vol 598 cc652-3

5.45 p.m.

Lord Carter

My Lords, perhaps I may intervene for just a moment. In the proceedings on the Statement on the European Commission, my noble friend the Leader of the House inadvertently omitted page 3 of the text as supplied to the Opposition and as made available to your Lordships in the Printed Paper Office.

After discussions through the usual channels, it has been suggested that in order to ensure accuracy and completeness of the record of proceedings, the Statement should appear in Hansard tomorrow in its full and complete form. I hope that the House will accept my noble friend's apology for that error and will agree that the full text should appear in Hansard in the morning.

Lord Henley

My Lords, I thank the Government Chief Whip for making that statement. We fully accept the apology made on behalf of the noble Baroness the Leader of the House. We accept that in reading the Statement, she inadvertently turned over two pages at once and we were deprived of the advantage of hearing her repeat page 3.

I have not yet looked at page 3. There may be some points on that page which Members of the House will not have seen. My noble friend the Leader of the Opposition will have seen it because he had a copy of the Statement. However, some noble Lords may wish to ask questions on the content of page 3. Perhaps the noble Baroness the Leader of the House will be available at some stage so that noble Lords can ask questions on that page of the Statement. Or is there some other mechanism by which that matter may be resolved?

Lord Carter

My Lords, I must admit that I had not thought of that. I believe that that page is something to do with the role of M. Santer and that the content of those paragraphs will meet with the full approval of your Lordships' House. I suggest that noble Lords should read that page of the Statement and if they wish to raise matters with my noble friend, they should do so by writing to her. If there is a need to take the matter further, we shall try to do that.

Lord Henley

My Lords, I imagine that the noble Baroness the Leader of the House will be available tomorrow. I know that the noble Lord the Chief Whip has it in mind to make a statement after Question Time tomorrow. It may be that noble Lords will be able to ask questions at that stage.