§ Mr. Peter Bruinvelsasked the Secretary of State for Scotland 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.
§ Mr. YoungerThe Information sought could only be provided at disproportionate cost. However, a sample scrutiny of records relating to part of Session 1983–84 indicates that holding replies account for approximately 1.5 per cent. of all written answers. The records on which the sample scrutiny is based do not differentiate between priority written and ordinary written replies.
§ Mr. Peter Bruinvelsasked the Secretary of State for Scotland 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. YoungerThe number of questions answered by Scottish Office Ministers is shown in the table.
Session House of Commons House of Lords *Oral †Written 1981–82 447 1,602 104 1982–83 288 1,229 38 1983–84 493 2,537 155 1984–85 (22 May 1985) 215 1,143 56 Source: POLIS.
*The count represents the total number of oral questions actually reached with supplememaries counted as separate questions.
†The count includes all priority and ordinary written questions, plus those orals questions which were not reached. Additionally those followed by substantive replies at a later date, are counted as two questions.