Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Leader of the House, with regard to the 19 questions for written answer that remained unanswered after 10 working days on 12 February, how many of the answering bodies have not sent an apology to the questioner for the delay in responding.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
As Leader of the House, I take my duty to represent the House to His Majesty’s Government with the utmost seriousness. Central to this is ensuring that Peers have their questions answered in a timely fashion by all departments. Over the recent months, I have reminded all Front Bench Ministers of their duty to respond to Written Questions within the 10 day target.
In addition to this, my Office routinely contacts departments who have breached this target to ascertain the reasons why their deadlines have been missed. As an indication of how seriously I have taken this issue, I have also written to the Permanent Secretaries of departments and met individually with Front Bench Ministers who repeatedly miss the target.
I believe an apology is appropriate in such circumstances, but that it is a matter for each individual department to determine.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what proportion of named day questions were answered on or before the relevant named day by (a) all Government Departments and (b) the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in (i) the 2022-23 Parliamentary Session and (ii) the current Parliamentary session.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Data on response times to all written parliamentary questions is held by the House, rather than the Government. The Procedure Committee reports on departmental performance following the end of each Parliamentary Session, the most recent of which can be found on parliament.uk (https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1245/written-parliamentary-questions/publications), and the Government looks forward to receiving the Committee’s report on data from the 2022-23 Session. The Hon. Member may wish to approach the House regarding data for the current Parliamentary session.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many times Government departments answered Named Day written parliamentary questions stating that it would not be possible to answer a question within the usual time period in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Written parliamentary questions allow MPs and Peers to ask Ministers for information on the work, policy and activities of Government departments. Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account and it is a recognised right of Parliament that Members receive full and timely responses. Where it is not possible to provide a Named Day answer in full on the specified date, a holding response should be provided to the MP to explain this.
It is the responsibility of individual departments to provide timely answers to Parliamentary Questions from Members. The requested information is not centrally held by the Cabinet Office, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the Department.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the Youth Employment Group's report entitled Young Person's Guarantee published 27 September 2023; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We acknowledge the Youth Employment Group’s report calling for the Government to adopt a Young Person’s Guarantee and note the five recommended policy proposals.
The Government is committed to delivering targeted support for all young people, no matter what their start in life or the challenges they face, to give them the best chance of getting into work.
Within DWP, the Youth Offer provides individually tailored Work Coach support to young people aged 16-24 who are on the Universal Credit and searching for work. As published in PQ 202513, we have expanded Youth Offer support to enable more young people on Universal Credit to see a Work Coach in a Youth Hub or to benefit from the expertise of our Youth Employability Coaches.
By extending the Youth Offer to other Universal Credit claimants we are helping more young people not in education, employment or training who claim Universal Credit to access this essential support. Some Youth Hubs will also offer a drop-in facility where these young people who do not have a UC claim will be able to access support.
Lastly, we recognise that ensuring young people have the most appropriate support, education or training to enable them to enter sustained employment and progress in their careers requires a cross-government approach. In partnership with DfE and DCMS, we have established a new cross Government Forum on Youth Skills for Life and Work. The forum provides an opportunity for departments to identify and act on opportunities to work closer together on crosscutting youth issues and to equip young people with the skills for life and work that they will need to fulfil their potential and drive growth for the country.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, 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 Nick Gibb
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:
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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.
Answered by Nick Gibb
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:
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.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, 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 George Freeman
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.
DSIT was founded in February 2023 so there is not yet enough data to comment meaningfully on performance or response times. Making the most of the opportunities presented by the formation of a new department, the new team is working to maximise efficiency and innovation. Performance is regularly reviewed to ensure response times and backlogs are managed.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.
Answered by George Freeman
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.
DSIT was founded in February 2023 so there is not yet enough data to comment meaningfully on performance or response times. Making the most of the opportunities presented by the formation of a new department, the new team is working to maximise efficiency and innovation. Performance is regularly reviewed to ensure response times and backlogs are managed.
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.