§ Mr. Peter Bruinvelsasked the Parliamentary Under-secretary of State answering in respect of the Arts (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 him 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.
7W
§ Mr. WaldegravePrior to the 1983–84 Session, the Office of Arts and Libraries was part of the Department of Education and Science. Questions were then tabled to the Secretary of State and cannot be separately identified without disproportionate cost. Since June 1983 the figures are as follows:
Oral Priority Written Written 1983–84 108 180 70 1984–85 (up to Whit Recess) 54 34 33 In 1983–84 38 priority written questions, or 21 per cent., initially received holding replies. Of these, 30 received substantive replies within one week of the holding reply and the remaining eight within two weeks. In 1984–85, up to the Whit Recess, 10 holding replies have been entered representing 29 per cent. Of these, five received substantive replies within a further week, two within two weeks and the remaining three, within three weeks.
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 questionsactually 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 the departmental count.