Parliamentary Questions (Hansard, 14 November 1989)

§ Mr. Fisher
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many(a) oral and (b) written questions were asked of his Department in 1988–89.

§ Mr. Freeman
The information requested is as follows:

21 November 1988 to 9 November 1989 inclusive

Oral Written

House of Commons ¹841 4,615

House of Lords 44 78

¹Of this figure 86 received an oral answer and 755 received a written answer.

§ Mr. Fisher
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many written parliamentary questions he refused to answer in the parliamentary Session 1988–89..

§ Mr. Freeman
Hon. and right hon. Members will normally be referred to the responsible health or local authority for details of:

—locally determined policies and priorities;

—the applications locally of national priorities;

—statistics etc. which are only available locally;
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—operational cases where responsibility rests locally and where the local mechanisms for inquiry have not yet been exhausted.

§ Mr. Fisher
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the cost to his Department of answering parliamentary(a) oral and (b) written questions in the parliamentary Session 1988–89.

§ Mr. Freeman
Preparing replies for parliamentary questions is an integral part of the duties of officials of the Department. It is not possible to identify the time spent and thus the cost incurred in carrying out this particular duty.

21 November 1988 to 9 November 1989 inclusive
	Oral	Written
House of Commons	¹841	4,615
House of Lords	44	78
¹Of this figure 86 received an oral answer and 755 received a written answer.