§ Mr. BeithTo ask the Lord President of the Council how many private notice questions were answered(a) from Back Bench Members and (b) from Opposition Front Bench Members in the sessions of 1977–78, 1978–79 and 1988–89.
§ Sir Geoffrey HoweFor sessions 1977–78 and 1978–79 it is not possible accurately to identify whether private notice questions were asked by Back Bench Members or Opposition Front-Bench Members. However, of the 20 questions asked in Session 1977–78 my best assessment is that six were asked by Opposition Front-Bench spokesmen and for Session 1978–79 the numbers were 29 and 13 respectively. In Session 1988–89, a total of 35 private notice questions were asked; of these, 21 were asked by Opposition Front-Bench spokesmen.