Points of Order

Barry Sheerman Excerpts

Thursday 17th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising that point of order. The Leader of the House will have heard his comments and, I am sure, be able to pass them on, but I also suggest that the hon. Gentleman goes to the Table Office specifically with a request on how he can pursue the matter through the House in order to clarify the situation.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. On the protection of Back Benchers’ rights, those of us who attend departmental questions regularly are becoming increasingly worried by the way in which Government Whips systematically organise the tabling of questions. Today, if one looks at the Order Paper, one sees that eight questions—eight out of 25—all ask:

“How many apprenticeship starts there have been in the academic year 2010-11”.

We all know that Government Whips use that method to block off other questions; I know it goes on, and I think you know it goes on, Madam Deputy Speaker. If the Whips are going to use it, however, could they be more inventive? They could at least ask people to ask different questions. Indeed, could we not have a method whereby if eight questions are tabled, we take just the first two and exclude the rest? The current situation is an abuse of Back-Bench freedoms.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

The tabling of questions is not one of the responsibilities of the Chair, but I am sure that all Members heard the hon. Gentleman’s observations. Seeing as he has a proposal for dealing with the point, I suggest that he ask the Procedure Committee to consider whether the issue is within its remit. It is certainly not within mine as a Deputy Speaker.