Departmental Written Questions

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 10 February 2010, Official Report, columns 1087-8W, on departmental written questions, by what mechanism his Department monitors its responses to parliamentary questions; what its target time is for responses; and how its performance against that target is measured. (318385)

The Department has recently implemented a new IT system for monitoring its responses to parliamentary questions. This Department aims to ensure that Members receive a substantive response to their named day question on the date specified, and endeavours to answer ordinary written questions within a working week of being tabled. The new system will enable the Department's performance to be measured against these targets.