Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the average cost to the public purse was of answering Written Parliamentary Questions as of March 2023.

The cost to the public purse of answering written PQs depends on numerous factors, including the size of parliamentary teams, volumes of parliamentary questions submitted, and the complexity of the question asked (and required policy work to answer it), amongst other factors. Across both Houses, there were 61,427 WPQs submitted in 2022, normally each requiring several hours of officials’ time, so the cost is likely to be substantial.