Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Laws
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many parliamentary written questions his Department received in each parliamentary session since 2001; and how many of these questions (a) were not answered because of disproportionate cost, (b) were not answered, (c) received answers referring back to a previous answer(i) asked by the hon. Member and (ii) asked by another hon. Member and (d) were grouped together for answer.

Hilary Benn
DFID’s own records do not contain a breakdown of such information. However, it is obtainable from the Official Report.

Mr. Laws
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what target his Department has for the maximum acceptable amount of time to answer parliamentary written questions; and what percentage of parliamentary answers met that target in each parliamentary session since 2001.

Hilary Benn
DFID aims to answer all parliamentary questions within the timescales specified by Parliament: on the relevant day in the case of named day questions, and within one working week in the case of ordinary written questions. DFID does not keep central records of how it performs against those timescales, but such information is obtainable from the Official Report.