PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
CONDUCT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE AND MINISTERS IN HER DEPARTMENT (3 November 1997)

That this House notes that in response to written questions from the Right honourable Member for Wokingham, the President of the Board of Trade has refused to reveal how many days she spent in the office between 1st August and 5th October 1997 inclusive and further notes that she has declined to list the shareholdings of ministers in her Department; believes that this unwillingness to provide straightforward answers to straightforward questions is both unjustified and arrogant; points out that a number of honourable Members have experienced long delays before receiving replies to letters to ministers and are entitled to know when each of the DTI ministers was on duty during the recess and who was in charge of the Department; believes that as individual ministers have been excluded from no fewer than three industry inquiries and Lord Simon has sold some shares to avoid a possible conflict of interest, the public should now be told for which industries and companies her ministers are responsible and from which they are excluded; and calls upon the President of the Board of Trade to provide full details of her recess working arrangements and how she is running her Department.

Sponsored by:
John Bercow (Speaker)