Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.
The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Members of Parliament, including written parliamentary questions (WPQs). The Department runs tailored training sessions for Departmental colleagues specific to WPQs to improve the quality and timeliness of responses.
All Departments also have access to regular training led by the Parliamentary Capability Team through the Government Campus.
The below table provides the percentage of WPQs answered on time, and the average number of working days to respond, which were received from Members of the House of Commons and due for answer between 1 March 2023 and 31 August 2023.
Total WPQs answered | % WPQs answered on time | Average working days to respond |
1,576 | 86.3% | 6.1 |
Footnotes: