Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Should MPs' questions to ministers be limited - or even rationed? That's the suggestion from the Commons Procedure Committee in its latest report, in an effort to combat the tidal wave of written questions now swamping many government departments. Today, there were complaints that the Department for Education had 183 unanswered questions on its books.

The committee proposes a three month trial of a daily quota system, giving each MP the chance to put down five written parliamentary questions (WPQs).
The underlying issue is that while questions are unquestionably a vital part of parliamentary scrutiny, there is a feeling they are being devalued. The report points out that 60,305 questions were put by MPs in 2008-9, the last year for which data was available. And it adds that there's no sign of this abating, with 2,536 questions of all types put down by MPs in the week beginning 24 January this year - 1,113 of them ordinary written questions.

"The danger is that good, sharp questions may get swamped by the sheer volume of questions published," it says.

And that's before it notes that the average cost of processing and publishing the answer to a question averages Β£230, rising to Β£525 for an oral question. That boils down to Β£110,000 per parliamentary sitting day.

There's also a damning quote from the former Leader of the House, Jack Straw, suggesting that the Table Office (which handles the questions put down by MPs)

"...has the impression that Members may on occasions countenance the tabling of questions in their name, of whose content they have little or no knowledge, since, when asked to discuss questions about which there is a problem, it is evident that they are seeing them for the first time. On other occasions, the content is such that it is hard to believe that it could have been seen and approved by a member..."

Or to put it more bluntly, a lot of WPQs owe more to the activities of interns from obscure universities in the US mid-west, than to the MPs they serve. And the only purpose of some may be to improve the individual MP's statistics on monitoring sites like They Work For You.com

At , the Lib Dem Duncan Hames added another point - suggesting a Commons debate on "the Hive Mind" after he noted the suspicious similarity between questions put down by Labour MPs in a couple of recent question times.

Between whips, shadow ministers and researchers, it seems, MPs can notch up, or put down, an impressive number of questions without ever having to devise them themselves.

But if there is to be such a trial, the Commons will have to debate and vote on the proposal. It will be fun to watch.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• - What's this?