(14 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. My right hon. Friend the shadow Leader of the House raised today the issue of the announcement made by the Secretary of State for Health at 9.25 am on Monday of revisions to the NHS operating framework. I checked personally with the Library at 9.30 am and then throughout the morning for the written ministerial statement. It was not made available until 12.40 pm, 10 minutes after the deadline for submission of an urgent question to you, Mr Speaker. Is it in order for me to ask now for a review of the way in which written ministerial statements are made available to Members?
Mr Speaker
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her point of order. The handling of matters of this kind, subject to its being orderly, is in the hands of the Government. As the Leader of the House is here, he might wish to respond, and is welcome to do so.
The Leader of the House of Commons (Sir George Young)
I would welcome the opportunity to have a chat with the hon. Lady immediately and explain my understanding of what happened on that day.
Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Before we come to the serious matter of resuming the debate on the Budget, I wonder if I might crave your indulgence to see whether you might be willing to consider doing something on behalf of the House. You might have noticed that yesterday saw the most titanic tennis match ever played—in this great city of ours and in our country. Nicolas Mahut, the Frenchman, and John Isner, from the United States, ended up in the fifth set at 59-all when, for the second day running, they were not able to complete that match. They will take it to a conclusion today. I wondered whether at the end of the match you might consider inviting the two players to this House to show, in this great summer of sport, how much we value sport in this country and how much we value people from all over the world coming to show their talents in this great country of ours.
Mr Speaker
What I would say to the hon. Gentleman is as follows. First, it may or may not be of interest to him and the House to know that I myself watched significant parts of that match—certainly for at least a couple of hours in the evening—and was as fascinated by it as the hon. Gentleman. The second point is that his suggestion is an interesting one but, sadly, does not qualify as a point of order. My third point is that I would be more than happy to invite the two gentlemen concerned to the House, but I do not have the foggiest idea whether they would be interested in accepting the invitation.
If there are no further points of order, we come now to the main business.