Leader of the House of Commons Written Questions

Written Question

Leader of the House of Commons: Written Questions

Thursday 7th September 2023

Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)

Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.

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 written parliamentary questions. 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.

Data on response times to written parliamentary questions is held by the House, not government, and the Procedure Committee has a strong track record of calling Ministers in to look at departmental performance where there are issues. Their regular reporting of performance continues to be an effective tool. I note the Procedure Committee's report from earlier in this session on written parliamentary questions during the 2021-22 session and I was pleased to read that the number of answers provided on time has improved from the 2019-21 session. I hope we will see this improvement continue when the Committee publishes its next report following the current session.

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 actions:

In line with the practice of my predecessors, I have written to all members of Cabinet.
I met with all departmental Permanent Secretaries where I reiterated the importance of substantive and timely answers to written parliamentary questions.
I participated in a ‘Leading in Parliament’ session with Senior Civil Servants.
I met with the Home Office Permanent Secretary following a number of concerns raised during Business Questions.
In November 2022 my office published an updated Guide to Parliamentary Work which is available on Gov.uk and includes guidance for civil servants on answering written parliamentary questions (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work).
My office oversees the Parliamentary Clerks’ Working Group, which brings together all departmental Parliamentary Clerks from across Whitehall to discuss topical issues and share best practice.

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 Written Parliamentary Questions and tailored workshops for Senior Civil Servants. Since April 2022, 1012 civil servants from across government have attended training provided by the Parliamentary Capability Team on managing Written Parliamentary Questions.