§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many questions he has answered from the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South (Mr. Hancock) since 1 January; and at what cost to his Department's budget. [77483]
§ Mr. Doug HendersonSince 1 January 1999, our records show that 287 questions have been tabled to my Department by the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South (Mr. Hancock) of which 240 have been answered to date. The cost to my Department's budget of answering individual Parliamentary Questions is not held centrally, however, the advisory cost limit of answering a Parliamentary Question is £500; therefore answering this number of questions may have cost some £120,000.