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House of Lords: Select Committee Reports

Answer

The Government values the work of the select committees of this House, and understands the importance of proper engagement with that work. Therefore the Government aims to respond to reports within two months of their publication. However, sometimes circumstances dictate that it will not be possible to provide a response within this timeframe. In such instances the relevant government department will maintain contact with the relevant select committee chairman and secretariat.

I have written to Lords ministers to reiterate the importance of providing timely responses to select committee reports. There are currently 15 government responses that have not been received by the relevant select committees within the two-month period. I am assured that ministers are working hard to ensure outstanding responses are issued as soon as possible.

Data on response times is made available by the Committee Office but has not been routinely collected for the years requested. However, as a member of the Liaison Committee, I welcome the fact that, since the 2014-15 session, government response dates have been published in the Liaison Committee’s annual reports. Links to the reports containing the information for the most recent three sessions are set out below.

Session 2016-17: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldliaison/13/13.pdf
Session 2015-16: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201617/ldselect/ldliaisn/26/26.pdf
Session 2014-15: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldselect/ldliaison/5/5.pdf

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL2539

Session

2017-19

Attachment

Session 2014-15; Session 2015-16; Session 2016-17

Related items

House of Lords: Select Committee Reports
Monday, 27 November 2017
Written questions
House of Lords

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

House of Lords Select Committee reports

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk