MINISTERS' ANSWERS TO PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS

That this House believes the power for hon. Members to hold Ministers to account is of paramount importance to democracy in the United Kingdom; further believes the duty of a Minister is always to give honest and detailed responses to questions from hon. Members; further believes that when Ministers have not offered honest responses that they should come to the House and correct themselves; further believes that Parliamentary records should be amended and, where the dishonesty has been deliberate, the Minister concerned should be censured; condemns the apparent dishonesty in the former Prime Minister Tony Blair's response to an oral question from the hon. Member for Mid Worcestershire on 12th November 1997 concerning the timing of the decision relating to the exemption of Formula 1 from tobacco advertising constraints, and to a subsequent written question on the matter from the hon. Member for Stratford-upon-Avon; and calls for current Ministers to issue new answers to the original questions and to correct the Parliamentary record.