Further to the commitment made by my predecessor to publish annually the performance of departments on their promptness in dealing with QWAs (HL Deb 8 May 2014, col 1575), I am today publishing data on departmental performance in answering Questions for Written Answer for the 2014/15 session.
Written questions are an important way in which Members hold the Government to account, and the House has agreed that they should be answered within 10 working days (Procedure Committee, 3rd Report, Session 2009-10). I take very seriously my responsibility as Leader of the House to ensure that responses are timely and accurate. I am pleased, therefore, that overall 91% of Questions for Written Answer were answered within 10 working days in the last session.
Nevertheless, we must always strive to do better. In that spirit I will write to the five departments with the greatest proportion of late responses to make clear the House’s expectations and to stress the importance of timely responses. I will also continue to publish departmental performance data on an annual basis to enable performance to be compared over time. My office will continue to work with all departments to ensure prompt and comprehensive responses to all Questions for Written Answer.
Due to size constraints, full details are set out in the attached table.