Written question asked by Lord Harper (Conservative) on Thursday, 10 December 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 14 December 2009. It was answered by Lord Beamish (Labour) on Tuesday, 15 December 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Departmental Written Questions

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what percentage of parliamentary questions tabled for written answer by his Department on a named day in session 2008-09 received a substantive Answer on that day.

Answer: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 9 December 2009, Official Report, column 367W, to the hon. Member for Glasgow, East (John Mason).Central guidance on answering parliamentary questions is now available in the "Guide to Parliamentary Work", at the following link:"http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/parliamentary-clerk-guide.aspx"In the response to the Procedure Committee Report on written parliamentary questions, the Government accepted the Committee's recommendation that Departments will be required to provide the Procedure Committee with sessional statistics in a standard format on the time taken to respond to written parliamentary questions, accompanied by an explanatory memorandum setting out any factors affecting their performance. This will be taken forward as soon as possible.

Secondary information