To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) how many parliamentary written questions his Office has received in each parliamentary Session since 2001; and how many of these questions (a) were not answered because of disproportionate cost, (b) were not answered, (c) received answers referring back to a previous answer (i) asked by the hon. Member and (ii) asked by another hon. Member and (d) were grouped together for answer; (107474)

My Department endeavours to answer ordinary written questions within a working week of tabling and named day questions on the date specified.

Northern Ireland parliamentary questions are recorded by calendar year. This information is as follows.

The breakdown of the figures requested by the hon. Gentleman is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. My officials are currently developing an electronic system to enable the provision of statistical data on parliamentary questions and answers. It is intended that this system will be in operation from January 2007.