May. 26 2010
Source Page: Ministerial code. Cabinet Office. May 2010. Incl. annex. 30 p.Found: business 2.2 The business of the Cabinet and Ministerial Committees consists in the main of: a. questions
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what steps she is taking to help ensure that Members' requests for assistance on ministerial correspondence are addressed in a timely manner.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account and, as Leader of the House, I expect Government Ministers to respond quickly and effectively to Members’ correspondence. I will continue to drive that message and I encourage members who get an unsatisfactory response to write to me and I will take this up for any Member who does not get a proper response.
I recognise that my office and I have a role to play in making representations to Government on behalf of the House of Commons, and have taken a number of actions:
The Parliamentary Capability Team in the Cabinet Office also provides training on managing parliamentary work to civil servants of all departments and grades, including blended learning courses on ministerial correspondence and tailored workshops for Senior Civil Servants. Since April 2022, 1,160 civil servants from across government have attended training provided by the Parliamentary Capability Team on managing Ministerial Correspondence and Written Parliamentary Questions.
As per the Cabinet Office’s Guide to Handling Correspondence (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/handling-government-correspondence-guidance), departments and agencies should aim to respond to correspondence within a 20-working day target deadline. The Cabinet Office published data on this for 2022 for all government departments on GOV.UK in March 2023, and will be publishing data for Q1 and Q2 2023 shortly. The 2022 data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers-2022.
Written Evidence Dec. 12 2023
Committee: Culture, Media and Sport Committee (Department: Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport)Found: CRE0003 - Creator remuneration Creative UK Written Evidence
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what data their Department holds on the average response time to written parliamentary questions in the last six months; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Written Parliamentary Questions. There are three types of Written Parliamentary Question. The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work sets out the timelines departments should seek to meet. This can be found here.
Departmental performance on Written Parliamentary Questions is published at the end of each session by the Procedure Committee and is therefore publicly available. You can find details of the last session's PQ performance here.
This year's data will be published by the Procedure Committee when the session concludes. Every effort must be made to reply to Written Parliamentary Questions within the original deadline. However, if the matters raised in the question require substantial investigation, it might not be possible to provide a substantive reply to a case within the departmental deadline.
Written Evidence Mar. 12 2024
Inquiry: How sustainable is our national debt?Found: The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies Written Evidence
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.
Answered by Steve Baker - Minister of State (Northern Ireland Office)
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Written Parliamentary Questions.
There are three types of Written Parliamentary Question. The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work sets out the timelines departments should seek to meet.
This can be found here:
Departmental performance on Written Parliamentary Questions is published at the end of each session by the Procedure Committee and is therefore publicly available.
You can find details of the last session's PQ performance here:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmproced/385/report.html
This year's data will be published by the Procedure Committee when the session concludes.
The Northern Ireland Office make every effort to reply to Written Parliamentary Questions within original deadlines by ensuring strict internal deadlines are in place, regular guidance is issued to all staff and monthly corporate reporting.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Written Parliamentary Questions.
There are three types of Written Parliamentary Question. The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work sets out the timelines departments should seek to meet.
This can be found here:
Departmental performance on Written Parliamentary Questions is published at the end of each session by the Procedure Committee and is therefore publicly available.
You can find details of the last session's PQ performance here:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmproced/385/report.html
This year's data will be published by the Procedure Committee when the session concludes.
The Scotland Office make every effort to reply to Written Parliamentary Questions within original deadlines by ensuring strict internal deadlines are in place, regular guidance is issued to all staff and monthly corporate reporting.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Written Parliamentary Questions.
There are three types of Written Parliamentary Question. The Cabinet Office's Guide to Parliamentary Work sets out the timelines departments should seek to meet. This can be found here:
Departmental performance on Written Parliamentary Questions is publishedat the end of each session by the Procedure Committee and is therefore publicly available. You can find details of the last session's PQ performance here:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmproced/385/report.html
This year's data will be published by the Procedure Committee when the session concludes.Every effort is made to reply to Written Parliamentary Questions withinthe original deadline. However, if the matters raised in the question require substantial investigation, it might not be possible to provide a substantive reply to a case within the departmental deadline.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Written Parliamentary Questions.
There are three types of Written Parliamentary Question. The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work sets out the timelines departments should seek to meet. This can be found here
Departmental performance on Written Parliamentary Questions is published at the end of each session by the Procedure Committee and is therefore publicly available. You can find details of the last session's PQ performance
here: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmproced/385/report.html
This year's data will be published by the Procedure Committee when the session concludes.
Every effort must be made to reply to Written Parliamentary Questions within the original deadline. However, if the matters raised in the question requiresubstantial investigation, it might not be possible to provide a substantive
reply to a case within the departmental deadline.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what data their Department holds on the average response time to written parliamentary questions in the last six months; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Steve Baker - Minister of State (Northern Ireland Office)
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Written Parliamentary Questions.
There are three types of Written Parliamentary Question. The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work sets out the timelines departments should seek to meet.
This can be found here:
Departmental performance on Written Parliamentary Questions is published at the end of each session by the Procedure Committee and is therefore publicly available.
You can find details of the last session's PQ performance here:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmproced/385/report.html
This year's data will be published by the Procedure Committee when the session concludes.
The Northern Ireland Office make every effort to reply to Written Parliamentary Questions within original deadlines by ensuring strict internal deadlines are in place, regular guidance is issued to all staff and monthly corporate reporting.