To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many parliamentary questions have been tabled to his Department for written answer on a named day since May 1997; and what percentage of them received a substantive reply on that day. [80739]

Our existing database does not allow us to compile the information requested without incurring disproportionate cost in its retrieval; however, its replacement will.Since 1 May 1997, we have issued 436 holding replies.