§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many named day written questions were tabled to the Department 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, (d) within 28 days and (e) over 28 days later; and what procedures the Department has in place to monitor performance on answering (i) parliamentary questions and (ii) ministerial letters. [99434]
§ Mr. Stephen TwiggThe information requested is contained in the following table:
Number of questions Total number of named day written questions tabled to this Department between 15 October 2002 and 24 February. 409 Number of questions answered on the named day 167 Number of questions for which a holding reply was issued and a substantive reply sent within three business days 154 Number of questions for which a holding reply was issued and a substantive reply sent between four and seven business days 68 Number of questions for which a holding reply was issued and a substantive reply sent between eight and 14 business days 15 Number of questions for which a holding reply was issued and a substantive reply sent between 15 and 28 business days 5 Number of questions for which a holding reply was issued and a substantive reply sent after 29 business days 0 The provision of quality responses in a timely manner to both parliamentary questions and ministerial letters is one we take very seriously. Outstanding parliamentary questions are monitored on a daily basis by the parliamentary section and reviewed weekly by the parliamentary clerk. 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 Friday 24 May 2002, column 674W. The report for 2002 will be published in due course.