Derek Twigg
Main Page: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Mr Speaker
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his point of order and for advance notice of it. I reiterate at the outset that if a Minister intends to make a new commitment in terms of policy or to change a hitherto understood public policy, he or she is expected to make that clear first to the House, as I hope experience earlier this week testifies.
I appreciate the extreme importance of this matter. I am not aware thus far of any intention on the part of a Minister to make a statement. It is open to the right hon. Gentleman and other hon. Members to table questions—[Interruption.] Order. The request that the right hon. Gentleman has made will have been heard on the Treasury Bench, and I repeat that if a new policy is planned we had better hear about it here first.
Finally, and more widely, it might be of interest to the House to know that applications have already been made for an Adjournment debate on this subject. Those applications were not successful in the ballot, but knowing the persistence and indefatigability of colleagues who are interested in this matter, I have a hunch that they might apply again and, who knows, they might be successful.
Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. I seek your guidance and patience on this matter, but I know that you understand because I have raised before the great concern not only on Merseyside but nationally and internationally about what is happening. We have had a disgraceful statement from a Minister this week. We have now had briefings and rumours about the release of documents and arguments about financing. An Adjournment debate is one way of looking at this, but is there anything more you can do to persuade Ministers to come here urgently next week to make a statement? The Deputy Leader of the House must have known about this issue because it has been in the national news all week, yet he could not give us an answer.
Mr Speaker
I appreciate the importance that the hon. Gentleman attaches to the matter. He has raised it before and he feels a commitment to his constituents in relation to it. Therefore, it is understandable that he has flagged it up in passionate and explicit terms with me this afternoon. I do not think that I can add anything, however, to what I have already said. If a new approach or policy is planned on a matter of great importance, which this certainly is, it should be the subject of a statement to the House first. I have now said that twice so I am sure that it has been heard in the relevant quarters.