House Speaker Anġlu Farrugia said on Wednesday that he had disallowed a parliamentary question about the attendance of the prime minister's chief of staff at the wedding of the chairman of Pilatus Bank because it concerned the private, and not public conduct of a member of the public administration.

Dr Farrugia's explanation was in a ruling requested by former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, who had asked the parliamentary question.

Dr Busuttil had insisted that Mr Schembri’s relationship with the Pilatus Bank chairman was a matter of public interest since Mr Schembri was the prime minister's chief of staff.

It was the third question by Dr Busuttil on Mr Schembri which was disallowed by the Speaker. A similar question by Jason Azzopardi (PN) was also blocked. 

In his explanation, the Speaker said that Standing Orders specified that questions could only be put to ministers if they were related to public affairs and to the public administration.

He referred to Erskine May, the parliamentary 'bible' used by the House of Commons, which said that the Speaker was the final authority on whether parliamentary questions were admissible or not.

He said that he had also sought legal advice on his interpretation of Erskine May and of the Standing Orders of the House, which advice concurred with his decision to disallow the question because it concerned the private, and not public, conduct of a member of the public administration, Mr Schembri having attended the wedding in his private capacity.

Dr Farrugia said that the inadmissibility of the question did not necessarily mean that the matter was not of political import. However, the political nature of an issue did not entail that such an issue was to be considered public business.

He advised MPs to move an amendment to Standing Orders if they felt the procedure which was currently in use needed to be reconsidered.