Friday 29 January 2010

David Simpson MP:

To ask the Leader of the House what average time her Office took to answer questions for (a) ordinary written answer and (b) written answer on a named day in the last 12 months.

Barbara Keeley MP:

The average time taken by the Office of the Leader of the House to answer ordinary written parliamentary questions between January 2009 and December 2009 was 3.2 days. 100 per cent. of the ordinary written questions during this period were answered within the working week target. All named day questions were answered on time.

With effect from the current Session of Parliament, each Department will provide the Procedure Committee with sessional statistics on the time taken to answer written questions. This implements recommendation 24 of the 3rd report from the Procedure Committee, Session 2008-09.