To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many written parliamentary questions to his Department in the 2005-06 session were not answered wholly or in part on grounds of disproportionate cost. (113293)

The information requested is not readily available and would require a manual trawl of over 6,000 parliamentary questions tabled to the Northern Ireland Office in the first session.

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

This month, however, a number of improvements have been made to my Department’s procedures for handling parliamentary questions. This includes improvements to the existing electronic system for tracking parliamentary questions which should allow for the provision of statistical data in due course.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many written parliamentary questions to his Department in the 2005-06 session were answered with a reply that it had not been possible to reply before Prorogation. (113294)

In the last session, over 6,000 parliamentary questions were tabled for answer by my Department. Of these, 26 were answered with a reply that it had not been possible to reply before Prorogation. Members remain free to re-table any unanswered questions.