HC Deb 11 May 2004 vol 421 cc230-1W
Mr. Brady

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many days on average his Department took in Session 2002–03 to give a substantive answer to a parliamentary question for ordinary written answer; and what the greatest number of days taken to answer such a question was [155924]

Fiona Mactaggart

The Home Office does not maintain records in such a way that provides the information in the format requested without incurring disproportionate cost. The last published performance figures for the Home Office from 2001–02 showed that 39 per cent. of all PQs were answered within parliamentary deadlines.

Every effort is made to reply to parliamentary questions within the parliamentary deadlines wherever possible. Consequently the Home Office is currently in the process of introducing a new PQ system, the electronic parliamentary questions system (ePQS) to better monitor and manage the Department's performance.

The ePQS monitoring system has identified the bottlenecks in the PQ process and remedial action is being taken. As is usual with the introduction of any new IT system, performance has shown an initial decline. The benefits of ePQS are now being realised across the Department and performance is improving.

John Thurso

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many(a) Ordinary Written and (b) Named Day Questions his Department received in (i) the 2002–03 and (ii) this parliamentary session up to the most recent date for which figures are available, broken down by month; [170772]

(2) what proportion of (a) Ordinary Written questions to his Department were answered within five sitting days of tabling and (b) Questions for a Named Day received a substantive answer on that day in (i) 2002–03 and (ii) this parliamentary session up to the most recent date for which figures are available, broken down by month. [170773]

Fiona Mactaggart

The Home Office does not maintain records in such a way that provides the information in the format requested without incurring disproportionate costs. During the period 2002–03 the Home Office received 7115 Parliamentary Questions. The Department has received 4040 Parliamentary Questions so far this session. The published performance figures for 2002–2003 showed that 37 per cent. of all Parliamentary Questions were answered within Parliamentary deadlines.

Every effort is made to reply to Parliamentary Questions within the Parliamentary deadlines wherever possible. Consequently, the Home Office is currently in the process of introducing a new PQ system, the electronic Parliamentary Questions System (ePQS) to better monitor and manage the Department's performance.

The ePQS monitoring system has identified the bottlenecks in the PQ process and remedial action is being taken. The benefits of ePQS are now being realised across the Department