House of Lords: Questions and Correspondence

Lord Wills Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2014 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Wills]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what importance they attach to providing prompt, full and direct Answers to Questions for Written Answer and correspondence from Members of the House of Lords.

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Hill of Oareford) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government attach great importance to providing Members of this House with prompt and accurate replies to their Questions for Written Answer and their correspondence.

[Lord Wills (Lab)]

My Lords, I of course welcome the noble Lord’s response because prompt, full and direct answers to all kinds of correspondence and questions are crucial if Parliament is to do its duty in holding the Executive to account. So will he join me in deploring the systemic delays and evasions that I have encountered over the past year in trying to find out how much money the Government have allocated for the purposes of electoral registration and whether they believe that the way in which they have introduced the new system of individual registration poses any risk at all to levels of registration? Despite a whole lorry- load of Questions for Written Answer, correspondence and Oral Questions, I still am no clearer about whether the Government even know how much money they have allocated for electoral registration, let alone what the figure actually is. Will the noble Lord agree to take immediate steps to provide me with the answers that I have sought for more than a year now? In the spirit of what I take to be our freshly minted agreement on the importance of prompt, full and direct Answers, a simple yes or no will suffice.

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

My Lords, if I had a simple yes or no answer, it would be a lot shorter than the question, if I may say so. The substance of the policy issue is clearly for departments to determine. So far as promptness and so on is concerned, I very much agree with the noble Lord that we need to have prompt and accurate replies. One of the ways in which we can help with the promptness of correspondence is with the figures that are published every year. The next set is due shortly—I think next week—and will show the performance of individual departments: how good they are at responding within the deadlines they set. I have a particular responsibility to try to make sure that Questions for Written Answer are answered promptly and I have tightened up the way in which we are doing that. I have decided that from the next Session I will follow the practice of the other place and publish, again annually, the performance of departments on their promptness in dealing with QWAs.