To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what average time his Department took to answer questions for (a) ordinary written answer and (b) written answer on a named day in the last 12 months. (313666)

It is not possible to provide an average time taken to answer parliamentary questions. During the period 1 January to 31 December 2009 DEFRA received 562 named day questions, 327 of which were answered on the named day and 2,387 ordinary written questions, 2,148 of which were answered within 10 days.

The Department strives to provide hon. Members with answers to all parliamentary questions as quickly as it can.

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 third report from the Procedure Committee, Session 2008-09.