Speaker rules on supplementary questions

The Speaker of the House of Representatives said supplementary questions to parliamentary questions must be strictly related to the original question.

In his first ruling of the legislature, Louis Galea said it was up to the Speaker to decide whether a supplementary question was related to the original question and, therefore, whether it could be allowed.

Referring to a point of order made last Wednesday by Opposition whip Joe Mizzi that to date, supplementary questions which were not directly related were still allowed if the minister agreed, Dr Galea quoted Standing Orders and Erskine May and said the observance of standing orders was in the hands of the Speaker, not ministers or MPs.

Dr Galea urged all MPs to regulate themselves in the best interests of the House.

He pointed out that the Constitution of Malta provided that the House could regulate its own procedures.

Concluding, the Speaker said he felt it was time that the members addressed the issue as recommended in the report by President Emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici on the Standing Orders of the House, laid on the Table of the House by former Speaker Anton Tabone in July last year.