Question

To ask the Leader of the House whether she will encourage Government ministers to provide full answers to Written Questions from members of the House rather than providing references to third-party sources.

As Leader of the House, I am responsible for encouraging departments to give timely answers to Questions for Written Answer (QWAs), a duty I take very seriously.

The House has set out clearly (most recently in agreeing the Procedure Committee’s 5th Report on the 2014-5 Session) that all answers to QWAs should be complete and comprehensible, and as such should not rely on references to external documents or webpages. I will continue to make this guidance clear to Ministers. Whilst it is for individual Ministers to account to the House for the content of the answers they provide - with Ministers providing personally signed answers to members as part of this direct accountability - any member is welcome to inform me of any particular concerns about a response they have received.