Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on ensuring that their Departments meet deadlines for replying to Members’ correspondence.

Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account and, as Leader of the House, I expect Government Ministers to respond quickly and effectively to Members’ correspondence. I will continue to drive that message and I encourage members who get an unsatisfactory response to write to me and I will take this up for any Member who does not get a proper response.

I recognise that my office and I have a role to play in making representations to Government on behalf of the House of Commons, and have taken a number of actions:

• Over the 2022 Summer recess my office conducted a series of discussions across Whitehall regarding the importance of timely and quality responses to Members.
• In line with the practice of my predecessors, I have written to all members of Cabinet.
• I participated in a ‘Leading in Parliament’ session with Senior Civil Servants.
• I met with the Home Office Permanent Secretary following a number of concerns raised during Business Questions, and I have been pleased to note an improvement in performance in that department’s statistics.
• In March I met with all departmental Permanent Secretaries where I reiterated the importance of substantive and timely answers to correspondence.
• My office oversees the Parliamentary Clerks’ Working Group, which brings together all departmental Parliamentary Clerks from across Whitehall to discuss topical issues and share best practice.

The Parliamentary Capability Team in the Cabinet Office also provides training on managing parliamentary work to civil servants of all departments and grades, including blended learning courses on ministerial correspondence and tailored workshops for Senior Civil Servants. Since April 2022, 686 civil servants from across government have attended training provided by the Parliamentary Capability Team on managing Ministerial Correspondence and Written Parliamentary Questions.

In addition, the Cabinet Office Guide to Handling Correspondence, which is available on Gov.uk, includes guidance for civil servants on how to handle correspondence from MPs, Peers, members of the devolved legislatures and members of the public (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/handling-government-correspondence-guidance).