Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named-day written questions their Department answered on time in 2022.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
From 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022, the Scotland Office answered the following proportion of written parliamentary questions on time:
(a) Ordinary PQs – 100%
(b) Named Day PQs – 100%
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Scotland Office attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Parliamentary Questions and correspondence, and officials remain committed to providing the highest level of service. Processes are regularly reviewed and officials have access to regular training led by the Parliamentary Capability Team through the Government Campus.
From May 2022 to July 2022, the Scotland Office answered 100% of PQs on time.
From May 2022 to July 2022, the Scotland Office answered 76% of all Ministerial Correspondence on time, and 100% of all correspondence from Members of Parliament on time.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what his Department's average response time was to an enquiry from a hon. Member to the MP (a) hotline and (b) account management team in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from MPs, either directly or on behalf of their constituents.
The Scotland Office does not have an MP hotline. The Scotland Office does not have an account management team, and the Scotland Office correspondence team does not hold information on the average response time to enquiries from MPs, as correspondence performance is monitored by the percentage of correspondence responded to within the target response time set by the Department.
Data on the timeliness of responses to correspondence from MPs and Peers for 2019 and 2020 is published on Gov.uk:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers.
The Cabinet Office will publish data for 2021 in due course.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Scotland Office:
What steps he is taking to support the steel industry in Scotland.
Answered by David Duguid
We recognise that global economic conditions continue to be challenging for the steel industry.
The UK Government is working with the sector, unions, and devolved administrations to support the UK steel sector, and to develop a long-term viable solution for the industry.
The UK Government has put together an unprecedented package of support to help businesses through the current crisis. We have established the £250 million Clean Steel Fund, which will help UK steel producers to reduce emissions in line with our target to reach net zero emissions by 2050. This is complemented by the £315 million Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to help energy intensive industries, such as steel, transition away from carbon-intensive energy sources.