Ministry of Defence: Written Questions

(asked on 18th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answers of 18 January 2022 and 1 November 2021 to Questions 103509 and 61052 on Ministry of Defence: Stonewall, what steps he is taking to help ensure that figures provided in response to Parliamentary questions are (a) up to date and (b) accurate.


Answered by
Leo Docherty Portrait
Leo Docherty
Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
This question was answered on 21st January 2022

Ministry of Defence (MOD) staff do the best they can within the given time available to supply necessary information for Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and Parliamentary Questions (PQs). Staff strive to ensure the information supplied is as accurate as possible and, where inaccuracies or inconsistencies are later found, the Department will set the record straight at the earliest opportunity. It must be recognised that requests for large data sets, over many years, present a significant challenge to locate, retrieve, and extract information, especially where such data is not collated or held centrally and is dispersed among different branches of Defence. In cases where FOI/PQs are made for historic information before the advent of widespread electronic filing, this task is made yet harder where paper records need to be manually interrogated. This can be further complicated by the time constraints imposed by the nature of such requests. Where time is limited, in the case of Named Day PQs staff typically have around one working day or less, it is not always possible for staff to ensure all records are thoroughly reviewed and the total accuracy of the data supplied. In such cases, estimates may be given. In the case of Question 61052, a Named Day Question, MOD staff produced the best estimate possible within the time constraint the question imposed. Having had the time to conduct a more thorough search and analysis in the time since, MOD staff were able to supply revised and more detailed information in response to Question 103509.

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