§ Mr. Peter Bruinvelsasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many and what percentage of the questions set down on the Order Paper for priority written answer by him in (a) Session 1983–84 and (b) the current Session to date have initially received a holding reply;
(2) how many parliamentary questions have been answered by Ministers in his Department in each of the last three complete Sessions, and the current Session to date; if he will break these figures down into questions tabled as oral questions, priority written questions and ordinary written questions, respectively; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe information requested is contained in the following table:
Oral Priority Written Written 1981–82 418 583 840 1982–83 320 455 736 1983–84 557 1,171 1,242 1984–85* 488 644 751 * Up to Whit Recess. In 1983–84, 610 priority written questions or 52 per cent. initially received holding replies. Of these, 557 received substantive replies within one week of the holding reply, 46 within two weeks and seven within three weeks.
In 1984–85, up to the Whit Recess, the corresponding figures are 287 or 45 per cent., 214, 66 and 7 respectively
Source:
Departmental statistics. It should be noted that the count produced by the POLIS system in the House Library will differ from the above figures, in that on POLIS:
- (a)the oral count includes only those oral questions actually reached, plus supplementaries counted as separate questions, and
- (b)the written count includes orals not reached, writtens, priority writtens and holding replies all counted as separate questions.
The overall POLIS count will therefore exceed l:he departmental count.
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