§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 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. [99433]
§ Alun MichaelThe information on Named Day questions for the period 15 October 2002 to 24 February 2003 is as follows.
235W
Number Total number of Named Day questions 524 Number of questions answered: on the Named Day 181 within three business days 193 within seven business days 94 within 14 business days 19 within 28 business days 2 over 28 business days 0 Number of questions wrongly tabled to Defra and transferred to other departments for answer 35 The Departments' PQ Database allows us to track the progress of questions from the time they are received in the Department until they are answered.
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, Official Report, column 674W. The report for 2002 will be published in due course.