DHSC Answers to Written Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateBaroness Thornton
Main Page: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Thornton's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(3 years, 12 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, earlier this week, there were 149 outstanding Written Questions addressed to the Department of Health and Social Care on the Lords business paper. My first question, therefore, has to be: when will they be answered?
One has to wonder about the quality of the Answers. On 21 July, my noble friend Lord Bassam asked a perfectly reasonable Question about
“how many COVID-19 tests have been sent by post and subsequently returned to laboratories, for each day since the scheme began; and how many of the tests sent by post have been discounted because swabbed material was not collected correctly.”
The Answer arrived today—25 November. It says:
“The information is not collected in the format requested”.
You have to wonder why a non-answer took so long to arrive. Does the answer possibly lie partly in the existence of the Cabinet Office clearing house? Are Written Questions subject to a clearing house process—something that many regard as part of a wider obstructive approach to disclosing information? Can the Minister tell the House whether he and his department are involved in referring things to the clearing house at the Cabinet Office?