§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister on how many occasions during the current parliamentary Session his office has co-ordinated responses from his ministerial colleagues to parliamentary questions. [36110]
The Deputy Prime MinisterThe reply that I gave to the hon. Member in answer to a previous question on this matter,Official Report, 2 April 1996, column 86, sets out the circumstances in which procedures for co-ordinating responses to parliamentary questions come into play. Such co-ordination takes place on an ad hoc basis, and advice is often sought, and provided, informally. I am not, therefore, able to give the hon. Member a figure for the number of times responses have been co-ordinated in the course of the current parliamentary Session.