asked Her Majesty's Government:

What correspondence they have received in the past year from the chairman of the Select Committee on the European Union; what were the dates of the correspondence and the ministerial replies, excluding holding replies; how many weeks passed between receipt of each letter and the issuing of the ministerial reply; and which department was responsible in each case. [HL4316]

The Government correspond extensively with the committee on EU matters. The Government take their scrutiny obligations seriously and will always aim to reply to letters from the chairman promptly to enable the committee to carry out its scrutiny responsibilities effectively before Ministers are required to take decisions in the Council of Ministers. The Government note that the committee publishes a progress of scrutiny report fortnightly when the House is sitting, which provides a record of all occasions on which the chairman writes to Ministers and the Government’s replies. They also note that the committee publishes a compendium report from time to time, reproducing all the correspondence between the chairman and Ministers. The committee’s most recent report (45th report, 2005-06, HL243) covering correspondence between March 2005 and January 2006 recorded that there were 367 issues on which there were exchanges of correspondence, with many being the subject of more than a single exchange.