Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, whether she has made an estimate of how many and what proportion of Early Day Motions tabled by hon. and Rt hon. Members have resulted in the Government (a) changing policy and (b) taking particular action in the last year.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
This information is not collected centrally. Decisions on each policy area are a matter for individual Departments.
Written Parliamentary Questions and Early Day Motions are important ways in which MPs can hold the Government to account and scrutinise policy.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, whether she has made an estimate of how many and what proportion of written questions from Hon and Rt hon. members have resulted in the Government (a) changing policy and (b) taking particular action in the last year.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
This information is not collected centrally. Decisions on each policy area are a matter for individual Departments.
Written Parliamentary Questions and Early Day Motions are important ways in which MPs can hold the Government to account and scrutinise policy.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, whether she is taking steps to increase opportunities for the scrutiny of statutory instruments by backbenchers.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government is fully committed to a strong Parliament that effectively scrutinises legislation. In its response to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee's report 'Losing Impact: why the Government’s impact assessment system is failing Parliament and the public' (HL Paper 116), the Government agreed that it is important that Parliament has the information it needs and that impact assessments should be published, where possible, when an applicable instrument is laid before Parliament.
Further to that response, the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s ‘Interim Report on the Work of the Committee in Session 2022-2023’ (HL Paper 205) sets out the steps the Government is taking on ensuring suitable opportunities for scrutiny by parliamentarians.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what data their Department holds on the average response time to written parliamentary questions in the last six months; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account and, as Leader of the House, I expect Government Ministers to respond quickly and effectively to written parliamentary questions. I will continue to drive that message and I encourage members who get an unsatisfactory response to write to me and I will take this up for any Member who does not get a proper response.
Data on response times to written parliamentary questions is held by the House, not government, and the Procedure Committee has a strong track record of calling Ministers in to look at departmental performance where there are issues. Their regular reporting of performance continues to be an effective tool. I note the Procedure Committee's report from earlier in this session on written parliamentary questions during the 2021-22 session and I was pleased to read that the number of answers provided on time has improved from the 2019-21 session. I hope we will see this improvement continue when the Committee publishes its next report following the current session.
I recognise that my office and I have a role to play in making representations to Government on behalf of the House of Commons, and have taken a number actions:
The Parliamentary Capability Team in the Cabinet Office also provides training on managing parliamentary work to civil servants of all departments and grades, including blended learning courses on Written Parliamentary Questions and tailored workshops for Senior Civil Servants. Since April 2022, 1012 civil servants from across government have attended training provided by the Parliamentary Capability Team on managing Written Parliamentary Questions.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account and, as Leader of the House, I expect Government Ministers to respond quickly and effectively to written parliamentary questions. I will continue to drive that message and I encourage members who get an unsatisfactory response to write to me and I will take this up for any Member who does not get a proper response.
Data on response times to written parliamentary questions is held by the House, not government, and the Procedure Committee has a strong track record of calling Ministers in to look at departmental performance where there are issues. Their regular reporting of performance continues to be an effective tool. I note the Procedure Committee's report from earlier in this session on written parliamentary questions during the 2021-22 session and I was pleased to read that the number of answers provided on time has improved from the 2019-21 session. I hope we will see this improvement continue when the Committee publishes its next report following the current session.
I recognise that my office and I have a role to play in making representations to Government on behalf of the House of Commons, and have taken a number actions:
The Parliamentary Capability Team in the Cabinet Office also provides training on managing parliamentary work to civil servants of all departments and grades, including blended learning courses on Written Parliamentary Questions and tailored workshops for Senior Civil Servants. Since April 2022, 1012 civil servants from across government have attended training provided by the Parliamentary Capability Team on managing Written Parliamentary Questions.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what steps she is taking to help ensure that Members' requests for assistance on ministerial correspondence are addressed in a timely manner.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account and, as Leader of the House, I expect Government Ministers to respond quickly and effectively to Members’ correspondence. I will continue to drive that message and I encourage members who get an unsatisfactory response to write to me and I will take this up for any Member who does not get a proper response.
I recognise that my office and I have a role to play in making representations to Government on behalf of the House of Commons, and have taken a number of actions:
The Parliamentary Capability Team in the Cabinet Office also provides training on managing parliamentary work to civil servants of all departments and grades, including blended learning courses on ministerial correspondence and tailored workshops for Senior Civil Servants. Since April 2022, 1,160 civil servants from across government have attended training provided by the Parliamentary Capability Team on managing Ministerial Correspondence and Written Parliamentary Questions.
As per the Cabinet Office’s Guide to Handling Correspondence (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/handling-government-correspondence-guidance), departments and agencies should aim to respond to correspondence within a 20-working day target deadline. The Cabinet Office published data on this for 2022 for all government departments on GOV.UK in March 2023, and will be publishing data for Q1 and Q2 2023 shortly. The 2022 data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers-2022.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, how many meetings she has had with the Chief Whip to discuss Government priorities and the legislative programme in the past 12 months.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
As Leader of the House of Commons, I meet regularly with Cabinet colleagues to discuss issues across my portfolio and will continue to do so.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, if she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to require companies regulated by (a) Ofcom and (b) other statutory bodies to respond to correspondence from hon. Members.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
There are no plans to regulate how private companies deal with correspondence through Ofcom or other statutory bodies, as it would not be within their remit.
More widely, Arm’s-length Bodies (ALBs) are a vital part of how the Government delivers policies and public services. It is important that they are accountable and transparent. It is a routine courtesy and a right of Parliament that members receive full and timely responses and I encourage Members who get an unsatisfactory response to write to me and I will endeavour to take this up for any Member who does not get a proper response.
The Parliamentary Capability Team in the Cabinet Office provides training on managing parliamentary work to civil servants of all departments and grades, including civil servants in ALBs.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, when the motion to approve the Houses in Multiple Occupation (Asylum Seeker Accommodation) (England) Regulations 2023 will be brought to the floor of the House for a decision.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Houses in Multiple Occupation (Asylum Seeker Accommodation) (England) Regulations 2023 were laid by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on 30th March 2023 and debated in Delegated Legislation Committee on the 10th May 2023. All future business will be set out on the Order Paper in the usual way.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what the (a) total and (b) per Member cost of the House of (i) Lords and (ii) Commons was in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
This information is not held centrally.
The basic annual salary for an MP from 1st April 2023 is £86,584. MPs also receive expenses to cover the costs of running an office, employing staff, having somewhere to live in London or their constituency, and travelling between Parliament and their constituency. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) which was created in 2009 by the Parliamentary Standards Act, is responsible for setting and regulating MPs’ salaries, pensions, business costs and expenses. IPSA is quite rightly independent of Parliament and the Government. At the end of each financial year, IPSA publishes an annual report and accounts which can be found on IPSA’s website (https://www.theipsa.org.uk/annual-reports).
Most members of the House of Lords do not receive a salary for their parliamentary duties but are eligible to receive allowances and, within certain limits, the travel expenses they incur in fulfilling their parliamentary duties. The House of Lords publishes quarterly data on the claims made by Peers which can be found on the Parliament website (https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/whos-in-the-house-of-lords/house-of-lords-expenses/)