Parliamentary Questions (Hansard, 25 March 2002)

§ Mr. Milburn

As indicated in my reply to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002,Official Report, column 192W, a full investigation has now been carried out into the circumstances which led to delays in dealing with parliamentary questions in the Department of Health, including apparent falsification in recording the 752W handling of parliamentary questions in the Department's parliamentary section. The aim of the investigation was to establish the facts and to ensure that the necessary remedial action is taken.

An audit of outstanding questions was carried out immediately after the apparent falsification of the electronic database used in the parliamentary section to track the handling of parliamentary questions in the Department was discovered. This identified 411 outstanding questions due for reply before 14 February, with 214 of those questions having been recorded as answered when no reply had been given. This information formed the basis for my reply on 5 March and for replies to subsequent questions to hon. Members. Further more detailed investigation of the information derived from this audit reduced the number of outstanding questions due for reply before 14 February to 354, with 202 questions recorded as having been answered when no reply had been given. The balance was accounted for by questions which further investigation showed had in fact been answered where this had not been clear previously or which were due for reply after 14 February, questions transferred to other Departments for answer, duplicate entries on the database and incorrect entries on the database. Of these 354 questions, 348 received replies by 12 March, the remaining 6 on 13 March.

In addition this more detailed investigation identified a further 11 outstanding questions due for reply before 14 February. Six of these were recorded as having been completed and given a false Hansard reference on the database; two previously unidentified questions were found which had been recorded as having received replies when they had not; and three outstanding questions were discovered which had not been recorded on the database at all. All these questions have now been answered.

Of the total of 365 questions finally identified as due for reply before 14 February which had not received replies when I reported the situation on 5 March, 33 received an answer within one month of the due date for reply and 95 were answered within two months. The remaining 237 had been awaiting replies for more than two months; and 77 of these were asked before the summer recess in 2001.

The overall number of cases where the database had been falsified to show questions as having been answered when they had not was 210, broken down by party as follows:

Conservative 88
Labour 69
Liberal Democrats 42
Scottish Nationalist 9
Plaid Cymru 2.

The investigation has also established that according to the Library of the House there are a number of outstanding questions from previous Sessions. Regrettably, because the Department had not been following the normal practice of sending all questions answered by letter to the Library of the House, we are unable to confirm how many of these questions were not in fact answered. All of the questions answered by letter during the last summer recess have now been placed in the Library; and this practice will he followed assiduously in future. There are, however, some indications that falsification of the database may have taken 753W place during previous Sessions; and this will be pursued in the context of the disciplinary process which is taking place.

The main conclusions of the investigation were as follows:

(i) There is clear evidence of the systematic falsification of records on the database which tracks the parliamentary questions received in the Department of Health. Questions were recorded as having been answered when no replies had been passed to the Member of Parliament or the Official Report; incorrect information appears to have been entered on the whereabouts of parliamentary questions within the system and in a number of cases a false Hansard reference was entered to indicate that the process was complete and had been externally validated. There have been three cases where questions that appeared on the Order Paper were not entered on to the database, thus preventing their being processed at all.
(ii) Examination of the questions in the backlog revealed no consistent pattern either by party or subject matter.
(iii) All the indications are that previously unidentified delays in handling cases in the parliamentary section were the overwhelming contributory factor, leading to the backlog of outstanding questions that developed, and that these delays were not identified through routine monitoring systems because of deliberate falsification of the database.
(iv) The number of parliamentary questions listed for answer by the Department of Health has increased significantly during this Session. During the 2000–01 Session (December 2000–May 2001) 1,754 questions were asked in 83 sitting days. For the current Session to date (June 2001–20 March 2002) 5,748 questions have been asked in 120 sitting days. This increase has tested the resources of the parliamentary section, particularly in the timely and diligent follow up of ministerial queries on draft answers. Pressure of work cannot, however, explain the failure to answer all the parliamentary questions in an appropriate and timely manner.
(v) Although some concerns were raised both within the Department and by MPs about delays in responding to questions and these concerns were followed up by Ministers and managers, suspicion was successfully deflected to others within the organisation. This was possible because the management information provided by the database had been corrupted by the false entries and because the increased volume of parliamentary questions made it increasingly difficult to track the physical progress of parliamentary questions folders in a small and cramped office. The falsification of the database also prevented the size of the backlog emerging in routine monitoring of progress on answering questions. Currently there is no external system against which the Department can validate its performance. From April the Leader of the House will make available to all Departments regular lists of the parliamentary questions the Library's records show are outstanding, so that such a check can be made.
(vi) An official in the parliamentary section has been suspended and is awaiting disciplinary action, in accordance with departmental disciplinary procedures. The detailed evidence found by the investigation will be used in this process. There is no evidence to suggest that any other member of staff was improperly involved.

Line managers had already put in hand action to manage the increased volume of parliamentary questions, to speed up their processing, and to share the tasks more widely within the unit. The database was in the process of being modified to provide more accessible and timely management information on the handling of parliamentary questions to enable improved tracking, early intervention and a clear audit trail. The staffing complement of the unit had been increased from seven to eight.

754W

A summary of the process for dealing with parliamentary questions in the Department of Health prior to this investigation is being placed in the Library of the House. The following further remedial action was identified as necessary by the investigation and is being put in hand immediately:

(i) New arrangements will be established within the parliamentary section to ensure that the process for tracking parliamentary questions cannot be manipulated by any one individual. This will include a clear separation of tasks and building in a greater degree of external checking and validation, including regular checks against information held by the Library of the House.
(ii) The electronic database will be modified and shared across the Department and Ministers' Private Offices to allow for a more transparent system of tracking the handling of parliamentary questions.
(iii) Questions are already handled electronically between the parliamentary section and officials. This will be extended to include Ministers' Private Office to simplify and speed the process.
(iv) Ministers' Private Secretaries will be responsible for dealing with outstanding queries on draft parliamentary questions before they are returned to the parliamentary section.
(v) The parliamentary section will be moved to more suitable accommodation as a matter of urgency.
(vi) In addition to the extra capacity already introduced, there will be an immediate review of the staffing complement within the parliamentary section to reflect the increase in work load and to ensure proper controls mechanisms are in place, using other Departments' parliamentary sections with similar volumes of work as comparators.

I expect that these changes will prevent any recurrence of the lapse in my Department's standards of accountability to the House, which I deeply regret and for which I apologise.