§ Mr. McMasterTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many parliamentary questions to his Department in the last five years have not been answered because of disproportionate costr j 2-6 or because the information requested was not held centrally; how many could be answered now due to computerisation and/or more effective operational systems; and if he will list each such question along with the name and constituency of the hon. Member who tabled it.
§ Mr. HowardThe number of answers given to questions to my Department in the five calendar years 1989–93 which the POLIS database has been able to identify as fitting the hon. Member's criteria is 479. Information on how many of these questions could now be answered and details of the questions and the hon. Members who tabled them could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.