Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, if she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that all Departments publish impact assessments to Bills when they are published at first reading.

Answered by Lucy Powell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

The Government is committed to ensuring Parliament has the information it needs to hold the Government to account and to understand the impact of legislation. When a bill is published the Explanatory Notes include information regarding any financial implications.

I have written to all members of Cabinet regarding their ministerial responsibilities to Parliament. Best practice guidance is also provided to departments through the Cabinet Office Guide to Making Legislation, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-making-legislation.

Published impact assessments, including their date of publication, are available on the Parliament website (https://bills.parliament.uk/).

Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of recent answers to Written Questions in the context of improving transparency in Government.

Answered by Lucy Powell - 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 helpful and timely responses to Members' PQs.

The Procedure Committee regularly monitors individual department’s PQ performance, and recently published a report on department’s performance in the 2023-24 session (available at: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/126/procedure-committee/publications/). I look forward to working with the Committee on this and other matters.

I would encourage hon. Members to raise any specific issues they may have with myself and my office.

Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, pursuant to her oral contribution of 12 December 2024, Official Report, column 1045, what discussions she has had with (a) the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (b) the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and (c) other Cabinet colleagues on the west midlands pension fund.

Answered by Lucy Powell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

As the Hon. Member will know from my correspondence with her, following the Business Question on the 12th December 2024, I wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the 20th December 2024 and asked that this matter be looked into.

I understand that the Hon. Member has now received an update from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on this matter.

Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, if she will make an estimate of the average cost to the public purse of answering a written parliamentary question.

Answered by Lucy Powell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

The information requested is not held. The cost to the public purse of answering written PQs depends on numerous factors, including the size of parliamentary teams, volumes of parliamentary questions submitted, and the complexity of the question asked (and required policy work to answer it), amongst other factors.

The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work) sets out: “There is an advisory cost limit known as the disproportionate cost threshold which is the level above which departments can decide not to answer a written question. The current disproportionate cost threshold is £850.”

Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2024 to Question 18705 on Home Office: Equality, if she will hold discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the adequacy of the time taken to respond to written parliamentary questions where there is a Freedom of Information request on the same subject.

Answered by Lucy Powell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

I have written to all Members of Cabinet to remind departments and Ministers about the importance of providing full and timely responses to parliamentary questions.

The government's position regarding the relationship between the treatment of requests for information through parliamentary questions and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is unchanged. The Guide to Parliamentary Work (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work), published by my office, states that “if information would be released under FOI, it would also be released in response to a WPQ”.

The Procedure Committee monitors departmental PQ performance and their sessional reporting continues to be an effective tool.

Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, what guidance her Department has issued on how the policy and work of non-ministerial departments can be scrutinised by (a) oral and (b) written Parliamentary Questions.

Answered by Lucy Powell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

The Ministerial Code gives guidance to Ministers on their responsibilities. Section 1.6(a) states that “Ministers have a duty to Parliament to account, and be held to account, for the policies, decisions and actions of their departments and agencies”. It is expected that ministers from sponsoring departments can answer questions on behalf of non-ministerial departments they sponsor. This is true for both oral and written Parliamentary Questions.

Additional guidance on answering Parliamentary Questions is available to departments in the Guide to Parliamentary Work.

I propose that any MP who receives a criminal conviction or is found to have broken the parliamentary code of conduct must be removed from their post. The party of the dismissed MP would be barred from nominating a candidate in the byelection.

The Procedural Protocol in respect of the Code of Conduct for MPs should be amended to allow the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to investigate MPs' dealings with their constituents.

Found: A letter from The Rt Hon Lucy Powell MP, Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

Found: Q1 Chair: Good afternoon, Leader of the House and Chair of the Modernisation Committee.

Found: –22 85% 79% 2022–23 88% 82% 2023–24 92% 88% Source: 2010–12 to 2014–15: memorandum from the Leader of the House

Question

To ask the Leader of the House what was the average cost of responding to a Question for Written Answer tabled in the House of Lords in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

The information requested is not held. The cost to the public purse of answering written parliamentary questions depends on numerous factors, including the size of parliamentary teams, volumes of parliamentary questions submitted, and the complexity of the question asked (and required policy work to answer it), amongst other factors.

The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work) sets out: “There is an advisory cost limit known as the disproportionate cost threshold which is the level above which departments can decide not to answer a written question. The current disproportionate cost threshold is £850.”

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2024 to Question 20545 on Department of Health and Social Care: Correspondence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that 80% of hon. Members receive a response to correspondence in 20 days.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is committed to meeting the target of responding to at least 80% of correspondence from Hon. Members within 20 working days. Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account. We recognise there is room for improvement and we are committed to doing things differently. The Leader of the House of Commons wrote to all Cabinet members in November 2024 to remind Ministers of their responsibilities to provide helpful and timely responses to Members' written parliamentary questions and correspondence.

The Government has already taken steps to strengthen its approach to correspondence, with a Ministerial champion for correspondence identified in each department. As the lead Minister appointed for this Department, I am receiving information from my officials on performance and highlighting the importance of this work in communicating with Hon. Members across both Houses of Parliament.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has had discussions with the Leader of the House on scheduling a parliamentary debate on compensation for women affected by changes to the state pension age.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

Sir John Hayes MP (Conservative, South Holland and The Deepings) has secured a Westminster Hall general debate on the topic of ‘Compensation for women affected by changes to the State Pension age’ on Wednesday 15 January 2025.

Found: (4) The relevant Ministers are the Leader of the House of Lords and the Leader of the House of Commons

Found: (4) The relevant Ministers are the Leader of the House of Lords and the Leader of the House of Commons

Found: (4) The relevant Ministers are the Leader of the House of Lords and the Leader of the House of Commons

Found: (4) The relevant Ministers are the Leader of the House of Lords and the Leader of the House of Commons

Found: (4) The relevant Ministers are the Leader of the House of Lords and the Leader of the House of Commons

Found: (4) The relevant Ministers are the Leader of the House of Lords and the Leader of the House of Commons

Found: Since 2010, in Opposition he served as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, the Shadow Secretary of