To ask the Minister for the Olympics what average time her Office took to answer questions for (a) ordinary written answer and (b) written answer on a named day in the last 12 months. (313675)

Information on the average time taken to answer parliamentary questions is not readily available in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However in my role as Minister for the Olympics, during 2009, I answered 28 per cent. of ordinary written and 45 per cent. of named day questions on time. These figures are unacceptable and were due to failings in departmental processes. Work has been done to mitigate these failings, and future figures should reflect this.

Further to this, with effect from the current Session of Parliament, each Department will provide the Procedure Committee with sessional statistics on the time taken to answer written questions. This implements recommendation 24 of the 3rd report from the Procedure Committee, Session 2008-09.