Lord Lansley
Main Page: Lord Lansley (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Lansley's debates with the Department for Transport
(10 years, 9 months ago)
Commons Chamber2. What recent assessment he has made of the performance of each Government Department in answering written parliamentary questions.
My office collates departmental performance information for ordinary and named day parliamentary questions, which I submit for each Session to the Procedure Committee. I provided data on the last Session to that Committee in July, and those are available on the parliamentary website.
The hon. Lady will be aware from information on the parliamentary website of the relative position of Departments, including the Department for Education. The Procedure Committee held evidence-taking sessions with the Secretary of State and the permanent secretary, and the Chair of the Procedure Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Mr Walker), has written to that Department. The context of that correspondence was that performance was poor but had improved in recent weeks. I stress that over the past Session, more Departments have increased their performance in responding to written questions than have deteriorated. It was possible, however, for the Department with the largest number of such questions—the Department of Health—to achieve a 99% response rate.
3. What his policy is on extending pre-legislative scrutiny of Bills.
8. What recent guidance he has given to his ministerial colleagues on making statements in the House before making such statements in the media.
The ministerial code is clear that when Parliament is in session the most important announcements of Government policy should be made first to Parliament. I regularly remind my colleagues of this.
Will the Leader of the House give me his word that the autumn statement will not be leaked to the media in advance, as happened with the Budget this year?
The House will recall the inquiry that took place into the pre-announcement or pre-leaking of material relating to the Budget and will recall equally the assurances that the Chancellor and I gave at this Dispatch Box that that would not happen in future.