asked the President of the Board of Trade what preparations the Government have made to end unrestricted hire purchase should consumer demand become excessive.

My right hon. Friend has power to re-impose hire-purchase restrictions should conditions warrant such a step, and no special preparations are needed.

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Power stated in Bristol on 21st November that people were: … coming in hordes and droves …" to buy on hire purchase? According to a newspaper report, he went on: 'If we kept up this hire purchase for any length of time we should be back into raging inflation.' But he did not think that raging inflation …"

[Interruption.]

I hope we shall not have too many quotations in supplementary questions. I would point out to the House in general that supplementary questions are growing longer and longer.

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Would you agree that I am entitled to quote to the House a statement made by a Minister?

The gist may be given in a question. It is a question that the hon. Gentleman is asking; he is not making a speech in a debate.

I was about to end my quotation, Mr. Speaker. It is: But he did not think that raging inflation would return; unrestricted hire purchase would be dropped before that happened. [Interruption.]

The question that I wish to put to the hon. Gentleman is—

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Is there no way of preventing hon. Members opposite who do not wish to hear the truth from shouting my hon. Friend down?

It is very difficult, but we do not want to waste time. If hon. Members confine their questions to what really are questions, we shall get on much quicker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask whether that statement represents Government policy or whether it is not to be taken too seriously.

The hon. Member might also have pointed out—

I was not allowed to.

—that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Power said that unlimited finance from public funds could not necessarily be guaranteed and the amount of additional finance, if any, was a subject for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It would be much more fitting if the hon. Gentleman would put a supplementary question of that nature to the Ministry of Power.

asked the President of the Board of Trade how much is now outstanding in respect of hire-purchase and other credit instalments.

The latest published estimate of hire-purchase and other credit instalments outstanding for durable goods was £515 million at the end of September, 1958. It is provisionally estimated that outstandings rose by about 2 per cent. during October.

Those figures are very out of date. Would not the Parliamentary Secretary agree that this hire-purchase stampede is getting out of hand? If he looks at the papers, he will see almost every day another report of a domestic tragedy where excessive hire-purchase commitments have been entered into. Surely, the time has come to take some notice of his hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Power.

I do not accept the strictures of the hon. Member. An increase of the order provisionally estimated betwen August and October is to be expected on seasonal grounds and is, in fact, less than the corresponding increase that occurred last year.