§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many parliamentary questions, in the period November 1992 to March 1993, were answered with the response that the information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost; and how many were referred on to an agency chief executive.
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§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe number of answers given to parliamentary questions from November 1992 to March 1993, recorded on the POLIS database as including a reference to disproportionate cost or to information not held or collected centrally was 32.
During the same period, the number of questions referred for answer to the Employment Service, the only agency in the Department with responsibility for replying to parliamentary questions on operational matters was 67.
This represents 3.2 and 6.8 per cent. respectively of all parliamentary questions replied to by the Department in the same period.