Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, whether he plans to introduce measures to prevent Members of Parliament receiving income for posted content from social media platforms.
Answered by Alan Campbell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government is committed to restoring a politics of service, consistent with the high standards expected of public officeholders. That is why, within a month of the election, the Government brought forward proposals to tighten the rules around MPs’ outside interests, and deliver on our manifesto commitment to ban paid advocacy. We welcome the ongoing work by the Committee on Standards to review the rules relating to MPs’ outside interests, and look forward to receiving its findings.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, with reference to paragraph 221 of the Guide to Parliamentary Work, how many answers to Written Parliamentary Questions have (a) declined to provide information on the grounds that it should be sought via the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and (b) withheld information that would ordinarily be disclosable under that Act in this Parliament; what steps he is taking to ensure departmental compliance with that principle; what data his office holds on the (i) number of such (A) answers and (B) subsequent corrections and (ii) departmental performance against (1) timeliness and (2) completeness standards; and if he will place in the Library a list of such answers, including UIN and date, broken down by department.
Answered by Alan Campbell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The information requested is not held by the Government. Data on response times to written parliamentary questions (PQs) is published following the end of every session by the House of Commons Procedure Committee.
I have written to all Members of Cabinet and spoken with Departmental Parliamentary Clerks to remind departments and Ministers about the importance of providing full and helpful responses to parliamentary questions.
As the Hon. Member will be aware, the Procedure Committee monitors departmental PQ performance and their sessional reporting continues to be an effective tool to hold Departments to account.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, further to the Point of Order of 30 October 2025, Official Report, Column 350-351, by the Right Hon Member for Basildon and Billericay, on Written Parliamentary Questions, if the Leader of the House will raise this issue with Ministers in the Department for Transport.
Answered by Alan Campbell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The government's position regarding the relationship between the treatment of requests for information through parliamentary questions and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 - as set out in the Guide to Parliamentary Work - is unchanged.
Following the Point of Order from the Hon. Member, I understand the Minister for Roads and Buses has written to him on this matter. The Department for Transport has issued an apology, provided the relevant information released through an FOI request and corrected the initial Written Parliamentary Question.
More widely, I have written to all Members of Cabinet and spoken with Departmental Parliamentary Clerks to remind departments and Ministers about the importance of providing full and helpful responses to parliamentary questions.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, with reference to the Point of Order from the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay of 29 October 2025, what recent guidance he has sent to Departments on paragraph 221 of the Guide to Parliamentary Work, published in November 2024.
Answered by Alan Campbell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The government's position regarding the relationship between the treatment of requests for information through parliamentary questions and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 - as set out in the Guide to Parliamentary Work - is unchanged.
I have written to all Members of Cabinet and spoken with Departmental Parliamentary Clerks to remind departments and Ministers about the importance of providing full and helpful responses to parliamentary questions.
Asked by: Peter Lamb (Labour - Crawley)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, whether he has taken steps to implement the suggested initial priorities outlined in the Memorandum to the Modernisation Committee, published on 12 February 2025.
Answered by Alan Campbell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Memorandum to the Modernisation Committee, published on 13 February 2025, set out the Committee’s next steps, following the consultation exercise it held between October and December 2024. The Memorandum stated that the Committee intended to pursue three broad packages of work. These were: improving accessibility for MPs, staff and the public; effective use of the Commons; and creating more certainty about the timing and nature of parliamentary business.
So far, the Committee has prioritised work on the first of these three themes. It launched an inquiry into Access to the House of Commons and its Procedures on 20 March 2025. Between April and July, it held seven oral evidence sessions, hearing from disabled MPs and former MPs, staff, and peers, and from academics and senior House of Commons staff, including the Clerk of the House and the Director General. Transcripts of all the sessions are available on the Committee’s website. The inquiry has also drawn on submissions to the consultation exercise, questionnaire responses, written evidence, and one-to-one interviews.
A report with recommendations to the House authorities and others is currently in preparation. A letter from the Director General to the then Chair of the Modernisation Committee, dated 28 May 2025, outlines some of the measures that have already been taken as a result of the Committee’s inquiry. This letter is also available on the Committee’s website.
The other two themes mentioned in the Memorandum remain areas of interest and ongoing work for the Committee, but have not yet been the subject of an inquiry. The Modernisation Committee made it clear in its Memorandum that it wants to work with other committees and it awaits with interest the outcome of the Procedure Committee’s inquiries into call lists, and electronic voting, the Standards Committee’s inquiry into outside employment and interests, and the Administration Committee’s inquiry into health and wellbeing.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, if he will have discussions with his Cabinet colleagues on the response times to written questions from the hon. Member for Newton Abbot.
Answered by Alan Campbell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account. I have written to all members of Cabinet to remind Ministers of their responsibilities to provide full and timely responses to Members' PQs.
I encourage hon. Members to raise any specific issues they may have with myself and my office.
Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, whether any (a) arm’s-length bodies, (b) agencies and (c) public bodies are being administered under the Privy Council.
Answered by Lucy Powell
The Privy Council does not directly administer any (a) arm’s-length bodies, (b) agencies or (c) public bodies. Certain functions fall to Ministers as Privy Counsellors, either because they arise under the Royal Prerogative or because an Act of Parliament specifies that delegated legislation is to be made by Order in Council, or by the Privy Council. This is usually limited to the approval of governance changes, or appointments, to independent statutory regulators.
Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what recent discussions she has had with IPSA on the (a) promotion and (b) procurement of British-made goods through Members’ parliamentary budgets.
Answered by Lucy Powell
No such discussions have taken place. IPSA is independent of Parliament and Government.
More widely, the Government is committed to ensuring public procurement expenditure boosts British industry.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, if she will require Departments to publish an estimate of the cost of answering a Written Parliamentary Question in cases where disproportionate cost is cited as a reason for not providing a substantive answer.
Answered by Lucy Powell
It is a matter for individual departments to determine how to respond to parliamentary questions from Members. In responding to questions, Ministers should be as open as possible and provide helpful answers to Members.
The Guide to Parliamentary Work (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work), published by my office, sets out guidance for departments in responding to parliamentary questions and the disproportionate cost threshold. There are no plans to change this.
The Guide states that “Where information is being refused on the grounds of disproportionate cost, there should be a presumption that any of the requested information which is readily available should be provided.”
I encourage Hon. Members to raise any specific issues they may have with myself and my office.
Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, if she will publish a list of the statutory instruments made since the last general election and set out the provisions in the parent act of Parliament which are relied upon to provide statutory authority for the making of that statutory instrument by 22 July 2025.
Answered by Lucy Powell
The information requested can be found at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi.