§ Mr. Maxwell-Hyslopasked the Prime Minister why the official Private Secretary to the Parliamentary Secretary at the Board of Trade writes officially on her behalf to the hon. Member for Tiverton on a matter addressed to her as a Member of Parliament, not as a Minister, the correspondence concerning which has been sent to him.
§ The Prime MinisterI am grateful to the hon. Member for sending me the correspondence to which his Question refers. It does not, however, bear out the assumption in his Question.
The hon. Member did not receive a letter from the Private Secretary, merely a Board of Trade compliment slip covering the correspondence in question. This was done because the Parliamentary Secretary had seen the case in her Board of Trade office. It was sent from there as a courtesy to the hon. Member so that it reached him more rapidly than it might have done had the ordinary postal services been used.