§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many named day written questions were tabled to the Office between 15 October 2002 and 24 February 2003; how many that received a holding answer were given a substantive answer(a) within three days, (b) within seven days, (c) within 14 days, 776W (d) within 28 days and (e) over 28 days later; and what procedures are in place to monitor performance on answering (i) parliamentary questions and (ii) ministerial letters.[99458]
§ Mr. AlexanderSeventy five named day questions were tabled to the Cabinet Office between 15 October 2002 and 24 February 2003, of these nine had holding replies. All were answered within three parliamentary sitting days.
Cabinet Office parliamentary questions are recorded on a parliamentary database, and progress of all parliamentary questions are monitored closely.
As far as ministerial correspondence is concerned, the Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on performance of departments in replying to ministerial correspondence. The Report for 2001 was published on 24 May 2002, column 674W. The Report for 2002 will be published in due course.