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<p>As Leader of the House of Lords I have reiterated to all Front Bench Ministers
the importance of adhering to the 10 day target for responses to questions for written
answer. As stated in my response on 19 June (HL8246) the Department for Health and
Social Care faced significant disruption to the delivery of parliamentary support
due to the pressures they faced during the Covid-19 pandemic. They have since implemented
a Written Parliamentary Question Recovery Plan to deal with the backlog of written
questions. At the time of writing, DHSC’s PQ on-time rate for July is 89.6%, the highest
percentage during a sitting month since early 2020.</p><p><strong><br></strong>The
Permanent Secretary has further reassured me that they are committed to improving
the process and have taken further steps to bring performance levels back to pre-pandemic
levels including streamlining the drafting process. I will be looking for further
improvements on their record as a result of the Department's Recovery plan. It is
important that the highest standards are achieved by all Departments in replying to
members of the House.</p>
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