Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department's internal guidance for officials on the drafting of answers to parliamentary questions; and if he will set out his Department's step by step sign off procedure before Ministerial approval is given to answers.

The Department’s most recent internal guidance is attached.

The Office of the Leader of the House provides guidance to all departments on the practice of answering Written Questions. The full guide is available at GOV.UK at the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work

Answers are cleared by a senior member of the civil service responsible for the relevant policy areas. The answers are then reviewed by special advisers before submitting to the relevant Minister for final clearance.