§ Sir A. Wilsonasked the Prime Minister whether he is aware of the growth of recent years of the practice by public departments of recording the presentation to Parliament, in dummy form, of Reports and Papers which are not, in fact, available even in proof, and are not so available for many months and often not until a subsequent Session; and whether he will give further consideration to a practice which was originally instituted in order to enable Papers to be distributed to Members during a Recess?
§ The Prime MinisterThe practice of presenting papers in dummy has been found by very long experience to serve a useful purpose, and, while it is desirable that such papers should be made available to Members as soon as reasonably possible after presentation, I do not see any sufficient reason for its reconsideration.