§ Mr. Sheldonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the present total cost of answering Parliamentary Ques- 384W tions; what is the cost per Question; and what are the comparisons with such costs in the previous five years.
§ Mr. Harold Lever:Estimates of the cost of answering Parliamentary Questions are not available on a regular basis. An analysis of the costs incurred in Government departments in preparing Answers to Questions tabled by Members of this House between mid-June and mid-July, 1965, showed that they averaged £10 10s. 11d. for a Question for Oral Reply and £7 11s. 4d. for a Question for Written Reply. On this basis, the total of these costs during the Parliamentary Session 1964–65 was of the order of £110,000. The annual cost can be expected to have risen since then, principally because the average number of Questions on each sitting day has risen from 73.5 in the 1964–65 Session to 119 in the current Session so far.