§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what changes he envisages in(a) parliamentary accountability in general and (b) his method of handling parliamentary written and oral questions arising from the move to agencies.
§ Miss WiddecombeAs my right hon. Friend the former Prime Minister said in reply to the hon. Member for Newport, West (Mr. Flynn) on 6 June 1990 at column615, Ministers remain fully accountable to Parliament for the work of their Departments, including executive agencies.
As one of the objectives of establishing executive agencies is to respond better to the concerns of hon. and right hon. Members, answers to written questions relating to operational matters for which authority has been delegated to a chief executive will normally be answered with an explanation that the chief executive, as the person best placed to give a prompt and effective response, will write to the hon. Member and a copy of the reply will be 271W placed in the Library. Answers to oral questions relating to operational matters will normally be based on information supplied by the chief executive.