Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
All Government Departments have access to regular training led by the Parliamentary Capability Team through the Government Campus.
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) and correspondence from Members of Parliament, and officials remain committed to providing the highest level of service. To complement the work of the Parliamentary Capability Team, the MOD offers training sessions to its staff on the importance of Parliamentary Business, including the timeliness and quality of PQs and correspondence.
Between the period of May to July 2022 inclusive, the MOD answered 96% of PQs and 89% of correspondence from Members of Parliament on time.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) and correspondence, and officials remain committed to providing the highest level of service.
All departments have access to regular training on the full suite of Parliamentary business, led by the Parliamentary Capability Team through the Government Campus.
The Ministerial Correspondence Team held tailored training sessions for correspondence drafting colleagues to drive up quality and timeliness of responses. These sessions were delivered twice between April and June 2022.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Prime Minister's Office is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Between the period of May to July inclusive, the Prime Minister answered 100% of Parliamentary Questions on time each month. The Prime Minister receives over 3,000 letters and emails every week covering a broad spectrum of issues.
Where an Hon. Member writes to the Prime Minister about a matter that is directly the responsibility of another Department, it has been the long-standing practice of successive administrations for that matter to be passed to that Department for a substantive reply, on his behalf.
Information on departmental performance on correspondence can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of written parliamentary questions and correspondence and officials remain committed to providing the highest level of service.
The Department's performance in answering written parliamentary questions on time fell during the COVID-19 pandemic and we continue to receive significantly more written questions than any other Government department. In order to improve performance, we have been delivering against our Written Parliamentary Question Recovery Plan and answered 71% of written parliamentary questions from hon. Members on time between May and July 2022.
The Department aims to reply to all correspondence within 20 working days. From May to September 2022, we answered more than 50% of correspondence within 20 working days. This doubled our previous response rate in 2021 and we are committed to making further improvements.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
All departments have access to regular training led by the Parliamentary Capability Team through the Government Campus. The Ministry of Justice attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) and correspondence, and officials remain committed to providing the highest level of service. To complement the work of the Parliamentary Capability Team, the Ministry of Justice also runs tailored training sessions for MoJ staff specific to PQs and correspondence to drive up the quality and timeliness of our responses. These sessions have been delivered 7 times since July.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of written parliamentary questions and correspondence from MPs, either directly or on behalf of their constituents. All departments have access to regular training led by the Parliamentary Capability Team through the Government Campus.
Following the significant increase in numbers since 2020, the FCDO has an ongoing focused programme of work to streamline processes and improve response times to tackle the high volume. Annual and Quarterly data on MP/Peer letter performance, published on https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers shows the FCDO has improved from 50% on time in 2021 to 72% so far this year. The latest House of Commons Procedure Committee report published in July 2022 records the FCDO improvement in answering ordinary written parliamentary questions from 87% for 2019-21 Session to 94% for 2021-22, and similarly for named day written parliamentary questions from 84% to 89%.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) and correspondence from Members of Parliament and the public, and is committed to providing the highest level of service and making continuous improvements.
The department's PQ performance for the previous parliamentary session can be found here. The department's annual correspondence performance can also be found here.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department is committed to responding to Parliamentary Questions (PQs) and correspondence in a timely manner. Between May and July inclusive, on average over 95% of PQs and 81% of enquiries from Members of Parliament were answered on time by BEIS, exceeding its departmental performance standard.
To complement the work of the Parliamentary Capability Team, the department also runs tailored training sessions for BEIS staff specific to PQs to improve the quality and timeliness of our responses.
For correspondence, it has improved the efficiency of the end-to-end correspondence process and is exploring other initiatives, such as digital solutions.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Steve Baker - Minister of State (Northern Ireland Office)
The effective and timely handling of Parliamentary Questions and correspondence is of great importance to the Northern Ireland Office and its Ministers.
Officials work at pace to draft, clear and issue responses to PQs and correspondence from MPs. Between the period 1 May to 31 July 2022, the Northern Ireland Office answered 100% of PQs on time and an average of 78% of all correspondence to MPs on time.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department understands the importance of the effective and timely handling of Parliamentary Questions and correspondence. Between the period of May to July inclusive the Department for Transport answered 100% of Parliamentary Questions on time and 98% of ministerial correspondence cases in 20 working days in May and June and 96% in July.
The Department will continue to focus on delivering excellent response rates to both Parliamentary Questions and correspondence.