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Departmental Parliamentary Questions

Volume 472: debated on Wednesday 5 March 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what the (a) cost and (b) average response time for answering parliamentary questions was for his Department in the last parliamentary session. (172072)

Drafting replies to parliamentary questions is an integral part of the jobs of a significant proportion of the Department's staff and therefore to respond to this question would incur disproportionate cost. The Department's PQ Tracking System is currently unable to break down the average response time in answering parliamentary questions. The PQ tracking IT system is being upgraded and is close to implementation. It will produce accurate statistics and a wider range of management information making it possible to manage and monitor PQs more closely.