Sant warns against ban on supplementary questions

Opposition leader Alfred Sant warned the Speaker of the House of Representatives yesterday that any ruling by the Chair banning the opposition from asking supplementary questions which were seen as not being related to the original question would be carried over to future legislatures.

Dr Sant said he had gone through the Standing Orders following recent pronouncements by the Chair and they said nothing on this subject. To date, the practice was that it was up to ministers to decide that a supplementary question was not related to the original question and then they could decide whether or not to reply.

Was the Chair now saying that the opposition could not put supplementary questions in the first place? That would set a dangerous precedent which would also apply to future legislatures.

Minister Tonio Borg, Leader of the House, said this area was regulated. Had that not been the case, MPs could ask whatever they liked, whenever they liked.

Supplementary questions, clearly, had to be related to the original and the Chair had a right to point out when they were not.

Dr Sant said he was asking the Speaker to clarify his position. Ministers were within their rights to opt not to reply immediately to supplementary questions which they viewed as not being related to the original, but to have the Chair stopping such questioning in the first place went beyond that.

The Speaker, Anton Tabone, said that when Standing Orders said nothing on a particular issue, the Chair referred to the position in the House of Commons. The textbook of the Commons defined supplementary questions, which, by definition, had to relate to the original. When a supplementary question was not related to the original, it was up to the House to decide if a reply should be given. The Chair, however, had a right to draw attention when a question was not related to the original.

Mr Tabone also pointed out that the Chair had long been calling for a revision of the Standing Orders of the House.