To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Malloch-Brown on 4 November 2008 (WA 41–42) indicating that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's improved system for the processing of Parliamentary Questions would help ensure that replies to Questions for Written Answer are provided within the two-week target, how many answers from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office remain to be given outside that target for each day during February. [HL1760]

The number of Questions allocated to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which were unanswered after 14 days during February 2009, as set out in the Lords business papers, are set out below.

2 February—13;

3 February—8;

4 February—11;

5 February—16;

6 February—15;

9 February—15;

10 February—22;

11 February—33;

12 February—18;

23 February—25;

24 February—47;

25 February—4;

26 February—4; and

27 February—7.

While these statistics do not reflect the standard to which we aspire, we are continually trying to improve our new system to ensure better performance.