Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, with reference to her oral contribution of 12 June 2023, Official Report, column 83, what recent progress she has made on appointing an adviser on standards.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government is carefully considering this appointment to ensure that an adviser has the necessary expertise and shall provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, how many oral statements the Rt Hon Member for Richmond (Yorks) has made to the House of Commons in each of the last five years.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
This information is not held centrally. I would refer the hon. member to the House of Commons Library service.
Asked by: Martin Docherty-Hughes (Scottish National Party - West Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, with reference to her oral contribution of 12 June 2023 on Members of Parliament: Risk-based Exclusion, Offical Report, column 110, whether she plans for the new cross-party forum to consider proposals on the transparency of political donations.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Transparency of funding is a key cornerstone of the UK’s existing electoral system. There is already an established framework which requires the political parties to record all donations, and certain donations must be reported to the Electoral Commission. This includes donations from impermissible donors, and also donations from the same permissible source that amount to over £7,500 in one calendar year. For transparency, donation reports are published online by the Electoral Commission for public scrutiny.
The terms of reference for the cross-party forum will be agreed in due course.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, how many Statutory instruments required (a) correcting and (b) replacing in the last five sessions.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Correction slips are used to correct typographical errors. A statutory instrument (SI) containing a substantive error must be replaced by amending secondary legislation. This is issued under the free issue procedure, further information on which can be found at page 128 of the National Archives’ Statutory Instrument Practice (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/pdfs/StatutoryInstrumentPractice_5th_Edition.pdf).
The National Archives holds information on SI statistics by calendar year. Information from 2016 to 2022, which covers the last five parliamentary sessions, is provided below.
Correction slips issued for made SIs | Number of SIs made and issued under the free issue procedure | |
|---|---|---|
2022 | 67 | 66 |
2021 | 67 | 112 |
2020 | 96 | 77 |
2019 | 95 | 57 |
2018 | 63 | 35 |
2017 | 71 | 30 |
2016 | 64 | 23 |
Information on SIs replacing legislation not issued under the free issue procedure is not held centrally. To provide this information would therefore incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what the average number of clauses in government bills that received Royal Assent was in the last five sessions.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
In the last five sessions, the following number of Government Bills reached Royal Assent:
Session | Number of Bills reaching Royal Assent |
|---|---|
2021-22 | 34 |
2019-21 | 44 |
2019 | 3 |
2017-19 | 51 |
2016-17 | 32 |
The average number of clauses in Government Bills that received Royal Assent in that period is not held centrally. To provide this information would therefore incur disproportionate cost.
The full text of each Government Act from each of the last five sessions is available on legislation.gov.uk.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of scrutiny of the Illegal Migration Bill in the light of the date of publication of an impact assessment of that Bill.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government is clear that Parliament should have the information it needs and that impact assessments should be published, where possible, when legislation is laid before Parliament.
On 13th March 2023, the House agreed a programme motion for the Illegal Migration Bill. The Bill will receive further scrutiny when it returns to the House for consideration of Lords amendments on the 11th July 2023.
The Hon. Member may wish to note that the Home Office also published the Child’s Rights Impact Assessment on the 5th July 2023.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, pursuant to the Written Statement of 23 May 2022, Official Report, HCWS47, on Review of legislative drafting, whether the Guide to Gender-Neutral Drafting published in 2019 by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and the Government Legal Department has been withdrawn.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel will publish its revised drafting guidance on GOV.UK in due course, and a copy will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. This guidance will reflect the Government’s position as set out in the Written Statement of 23 May 2022, Official Report, HCWS47.
The 2019 Guide to Gender-Neutral Drafting is not a Government publication. It was produced for an external seminar, and although based on guidance of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, it was not published by them. Stonewall was not consulted in relation to either publication.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, whether Stonewall was consulted on the drafting of the Guide to Gender-Neutral Drafting published by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and the Government Legal Department in 2019.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel will publish its revised drafting guidance on GOV.UK in due course, and a copy will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. This guidance will reflect the Government’s position as set out in the Written Statement of 23 May 2022, Official Report, HCWS47.
The 2019 Guide to Gender-Neutral Drafting is not a Government publication. It was produced for an external seminar, and although based on guidance of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, it was not published by them. Stonewall was not consulted in relation to either publication.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, with reference to the Written Statement of 23 May 2022, Official Report, HCWS47, on Review of legislative drafting, whether the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel's revised drafting guidance has been approved by Ministers; and whether she plans to place a copy of the approved guidance in the Library of the House.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel will publish its revised drafting guidance on GOV.UK in due course, and a copy will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. This guidance will reflect the Government’s position as set out in the Written Statement of 23 May 2022, Official Report, HCWS47.
The 2019 Guide to Gender-Neutral Drafting is not a Government publication. It was produced for an external seminar, and although based on guidance of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, it was not published by them. Stonewall was not consulted in relation to either publication.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what steps she is taking to programme business to help prevent a build-up of legislation in the House of Lords.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government has brought forward an ambitious legislative programme, with 24 bills currently before Parliament, and we will continue to make progress. So far this session 40 bills have been exchanged between the Houses, of which 24 have received Royal Assent.
The arrangement of business in the House of Lords is a matter for that place. I will announce future business in the House of Commons in the usual way.