Points of Order

Wayne David Excerpts

Monday 19th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for advance notice of her point of order, and for the point of order itself. Sadly, none of the three requests that she has put to me is a matter for the Chair; all three are matters—her brow is furrowed, but I assure her that I am right on this issue—for discussion perhaps between the Liaison Committee, as the collective representative of Select Committees, on the one hand and Treasury Front Benchers on the other.

I should say to the hon. Lady and to the House, which I am sure will want the issue to be interpreted, that the point at issue is the procedure for Select Committees to deal with proposals made by Ministers under the recently passed Public Bodies Act 2011. I note—she referred to this in passing—that a proposed Standing Order to deal with those draft orders is indeed item 23 in today’s Future Business, section C, and no doubt those on the Treasury Bench, which does not include the Leader of the House or the Deputy Leader of the House at the moment but a number of Whips, who doubtless can convey the relevant information, will have heard her point. I have a feeling that if she does not get satisfaction, she is likely, if precedent is anything by which to judge, to return to the matter.

[Mr Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. At the end of October I submitted a written question to the Treasury for a named day reply. On the named day, 7 November, the reply from the Treasury Minister was, “I shall let the hon. Member have a reply as soon as possible.” It is 19 December, and I fully appreciate that I asked about a sensitive issue—fiscal integration in the eurozone—and I know how difficult things are in the coalition on the issue of Europe, but 19 December surely indicates that I should have had a reply by now. Will you, Mr Speaker, make urgent inquiries with the Treasury to ensure that I have a reply as quickly as possible?

[Mr Speaker]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. This has been the subject of some considerable discontent on both sides of the House over a sustained period. Ministers have heard me say before that conforming to the spirit of what the House expects requires the provision of a timely and substantive response to the question posed. Simply to say just before the deadline or on the day of the deadline, “I will reply to my hon. Friend as soon as possible,” really is not good enough. The hon. Gentleman is a perspicacious Member if ever there was one, and he might wish to provide that example and possibly others to the Procedure Committee—and, perhaps, to write to the right hon. Member for East Yorkshire (Mr Knight), who chairs that august Committee and is looking into those matters—in the hope that he and his colleagues can get satisfaction.