Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times his Department answered Named Day written parliamentary questions stating that it would not be possible to answer a question within the usual time period, in the last 12 months.

The Department provides a holding reply as a courtesy to hon. Members if a Named Day written parliamentary question is not expected to be answered on the named date. In the period 1 November 2022 to 31 October 2023, the Department received a total of 2,980 Named Day questions, out of which we issued 1,115 holding replies of the nature specified by the hon. Member.