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<p>The establishment of the House’s new Q&A system for processing Parliamentary
Questions overlapped with the introduction of a new IT system within DCLG, which covers
correspondence and Freedom of Information requests as well as Parliamentary Questions.
This uses an ‘off-the-shelf’ package; this involved considerably less cost than would
have been the case with development of a bespoke system.</p><p> </p><p>Our system
has been developed to enable electronic transfer of questions and answers between
the two systems. Both systems offer some opportunities for speeding up processing
and improved monitoring facilities. The most immediate impact of the introduction
of the Q&A system has been the ending of the need to subscribe to the daily House
of Commons question feed service provided by The Stationary Office. This saves around
£5,000 a year.</p><p> </p><p>The Department’s system has been in use since the beginning
of September and work is continuing to develop its configuration to improve the way
parliamentary questions are handled. When the new system has bedded in we will review
processing arrangements to assess their effectiveness and explore whether further
improvements can be made.</p><p> </p><p>It will be for the Procedure Committee to
evaluate the effectiveness of the new system in improving performance when it assesses
the evidence following the end of the session.</p>
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