To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many written parliamentary questions to her Department in the 2005-06 Session were answered with a reply that it had not been possible to reply before prorogation. (112971)

56 written parliamentary questions tabled to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in the 2005-06 parliamentary Session received a reply that it had not been possible to reply before prorogation. Of these 56 written parliamentary questions, 25 questions were tabled on 6 November, two days before Parliament prorogued. The FCO was therefore unable to provide a substantive answer to those 25 questions before the House prorogued.

The FCO received 4,305 written parliamentary questions in the 2005-06 parliamentary Session, of which 3,460 were answered within one week. The FCO received 954 named day questions during the same Session, of which 723 were answered on the allocated day.

FCO Ministers and officials endeavour to answer named day questions on the allocated day and ordinary written questions within one week.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many written parliamentary questions to her Department in the 2005-06 Session were not answered wholly or in part on grounds of disproportionate cost. (112972)

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not record the information requested by the right hon. Member. In order to answer this question officials would need to check every parliamentary question received during the 2005-06 Session. This in itself would incur disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many written parliamentary questions to her Department in the 2005-06 Session did not receive an answer. (113589)

Three written parliamentary questions in the 2005-06 parliamentary Session did not receive an answer. I refer the right hon. Member to the reply I gave her today (UIN 112971).