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1724808

registered interest
date	30/07/2024
answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
answering dept id	92
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
hansard heading	House of Lords: Reform
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Smith of Basildon on 30 July, what plans they have to consult on their proposals to reform this House; when any such consultation will (1) be published, and (2) close; and what specific proposals will be in scope.
tabling member printed	Baroness Smith of Llanfaes
uin	HL540
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2024 answer text <p>The Kings Speech included the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill which has now been introduced into the House of Commons. Other proposed reforms include the appointment process, retirement and participation. I have already started engaging with colleagues around the House and welcome their input. I look forward to continuing this dialogue. As outlined in our manifesto, in the longer term the Government will consult on further reforms to ensure that an alternative second chamber is more representative of the nation and regions.</p> answering member printed Baroness Smith of Basildon question first answered 12/09/2024 14:30:28 answering member 4170 label Biography information for Baroness Smith of Basildon
tabling member	5023 label Biography information for Baroness Smith of Llanfaes

1700766

registered interest
date	15/04/2024
answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
answering dept id	92
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
hansard heading	Secretaries of State: Parliamentary Scrutiny
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Leader of the House when they will respond to the Report of the Procedure Committee of the House of Commons Commons scrutiny of Secretaries of State in the House of Lords (1st Report, HC 338).
tabling member printed	Lord Young of Cookham
uin	HL3828
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/04/2024 answer text <p>The Government responded to the House of Commons Procedure Committee Report Commons scrutiny of Secretaries of State in the House of Lords (1st Report, HC 338) on Wednesday 17th April 2024. A copy of the report can be found on the Procedure Committees website on the link below.</p><p><strong><br><a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/126/procedure-committee/publications/" target="_blank">https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/126/procedure-committee/publications/</a> </strong></p> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 18/04/2024 11:35:16 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
tabling member	57 label Biography information for Lord Young of Cookham

1694356

registered interest
date	06/03/2024
answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
answering dept id	92
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
hansard heading	House of Lords: Select Committees
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy on civil servants giving evidence to House of Lords committees, and under what circumstances a request for such evidence may be declined.
tabling member printed	Lord Watts
uin	HL3091
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2024 answer text <p>The Government, including the Civil Service, is committed to being as accommodating as possible when requests are made by Select Committees. The Cabinet Office has dedicated guidance for Civil Servants about giving evidence to House of Lords Select Committees. Officials will always carefully consider requests to give evidence. When they do accept such invitations, they require Ministerial agreement and are there to represent the Minister's views.</p><p>In the event that a Select Committee requests a named civil servant from a department and the department feels that they are not the most appropriate person to represent the Minister, the department has the right to suggest an alternative to the Committee. There may be rare examples where the Department and Ministers feel an official is unable to attend, but the guidance is clear that if a Department considers it is unable to meet any requests from the Select Committee, they should inform the Committee as soon as practicably possible and set out the reasons why.</p><p>As Leader of the House of Lords, I have made it clear to my Ministerial Colleagues, that Ministers in both Houses should make every effort to facilitate Select Committee requests, including evidence session attendance.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 19/03/2024 16:38:16 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
tabling member	489 label Biography information for Lord Watts

1688855

registered interest
date	13/02/2024
answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
answering dept id	92
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
hansard heading	Government Departments: Written Questions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Leader of the House, with regard to the 19 questions for written answer that remained unanswered after 10 working days on 12 February, how many of the answering bodies have not sent an apology to the questioner for the delay in responding.
tabling member printed	Lord Jopling
uin	HL2441
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2024 answer text <p>As Leader of the House, I take my duty to represent the House to His Majesty’s Government with the utmost seriousness. Central to this is ensuring that Peers have their questions answered in a timely fashion by all departments. Over the recent months, I have reminded all Front Bench Ministers of their duty to respond to Written Questions within the 10 day target.</p><p>In addition to this, my Office routinely contacts departments who have breached this target to ascertain the reasons why their deadlines have been missed. As an indication of how seriously I have taken this issue, I have also written to the Permanent Secretaries of departments and met individually with Front Bench Ministers who repeatedly miss the target.</p><p>I believe an apology is appropriate in such circumstances, but that it is a matter for each individual department to determine.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 27/02/2024 12:30:16 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
tabling member	883 label Biography information for Lord Jopling

1678290

registered interest
date	14/12/2023
answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
answering dept id	92
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
hansard heading	Department of Health and Social Care: Written Questions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Leader of the House why Written Questions HL660 and HL661, tabled on 28 November, have not been answered after 10 working days.
tabling member printed	Lord Jackson of Peterborough
uin	HL1214
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/12/2023 answer text <p><strong>As Leader of the House of Lords I have reiterated to all Departments the importance of adhering to the 10 day target for responses to questions for written answer. My office has been in close contact with the Department for Health and Social Care’s Parliamentary Team to ascertain why HL660 and HL661 went unanswered. They have now confirmed that they have been answered. The Permanent Secretary has previously reassured me that the department is working to return performance to pre-pandemic levels. As this issue has persisted I am writing again to the Permanent Secretary to highlight the lack of improvement.</strong></p> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 19/12/2023 14:51:53 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
tabling member	1551 label Biography information for Lord Jackson of Peterborough

1655036

registered interest
date	24/07/2023
answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
answering dept id	92
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
hansard heading	Department of Health and Social Care: Written Questions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Leader of the House, further to the Written Answer by Lord True on 19 June (HL8246), what explanations he has had from the Department of Health and Social Care concerning the number of questions allocated to that department that remain unanswered after 10 working days.
tabling member printed	Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
uin	HL9624
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/08/2023 answer text <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> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 03/08/2023 09:31:05 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
tabling member	2024 label Biography information for Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

1642409

registered interest
date	06/06/2023
answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
answering dept id	92
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
hansard heading	Department of Health and Social Care: Written Questions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Leader of the House what explanations he has had from the Department for Health and Social Care concerning their failure to answer 18 questions for written answer, dating back to 19 April, within the recommended time.
tabling member printed	Lord Jopling
uin	HL8246
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2023 answer text <p>As Leader of the House I see it as essential that Noble Lords receive accurate and timely responses to all written questions tabled to His Majesty's Government. For that reason, I have spoken to all Front Bench Ministers regarding the importance of adhering to the 10 working day window for response to questions for written answer. I have also written to the Permanent Secretary of DHSC to reiterate the importance of his department responding to peers within this timeframe, as well as urging them to clear the backlog as soon as possible.</p><p>My office has contacted DHSC regarding their repeated failure to meet the 10 day target for response. After the significant disruption caused to the delivery of parliamentary support to the House of Lords by the COVID-19 pandemic, the DHSC parliamentary team has implemented a Written Parliamentary Question Recovery Plan to deal with the backlog of written questions. This recovery plan has led to significant improvements in their performance. However, your question clearly highlights that there is more work to do to ensure that all questions are answered within the 10 day target. Parliament rightly expects that more work will be done on this matter.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 19/06/2023 16:28:12 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
tabling member	883 label Biography information for Lord Jopling

1581655

registered interest
date	30/01/2023
answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
answering dept id	92
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
hansard heading	House of Lords: Legislation
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Leader of the House, further to the request made to the Leader by Lord Blencathra on 12 January (HL Deb col 1535), whether he will (1) send a printed copy of the Cabinet Office Guide to Making Legislation to every civil servant in the Office of Parliamentary Counsel with an instruction to read it, and (2) amend section E of the Guide which begins with the sentence “The House of Lords is usually the more difficult House to take legislation through…”.
tabling member printed	Lord Blencathra
uin	HL5192
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2023 answer text <p>On instruction from the relevant policy department, the Office of Parliamentary Counsel are responsible for the drafting of Government legislation.</p><p>In light of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee's report Democracy Denied? The urgent need to rebalance power between Parliament and the Executive (HL 106), the Guide to Making Legislation was updated last summer. This included integrating a link to the Committee's revised guidance. Along with the Committee's report and the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee's report Government by Diktat: A call to return power to Parliament (HL 105), the guide was circulated to all officials in Whitehall responsible for preparing and passing primary legislation.</p><p>The Guide to Making Legislation is usually updated annually and I have asked the responsible officials to consider how to best express in the Guide the different procedures, practices and challenges posed by legislating in the House of Commons and the House of Lords. I hope very much that in that process officials will take carefully into account points made by Your Lordships in what was an important debate.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 10/02/2023 14:11:04 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
tabling member	497 label Biography information for Lord Blencathra

1563831

registered interest
date	21/12/2022
answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
answering dept id	92
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
hansard heading	Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Written Questions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Leader of the House when they expect to answer the Written Question tabled by Lord Rogan on 17 November (HL3519) and due for answer on 1 December.
tabling member printed	Lord Rogan
uin	HL4501
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/01/2023 answer text <p>The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has confirmed a response to your written question was initially issued on time, but a technical error prevented it from being published by the 1 December deadline.</p><p>The FCDO has assured my office that a new response will be issued in the week commencing 9 January 2023 and the Department will write to you directly with an explanation for the delayed response.</p><p>My office will continue to work closely with all departments, including the FCDO, to ensure they conduct regular reviews of their systems and processes to prevent future incidents.</p><p>I regret the error and I will be reminding all colleagues at Front Bench of their duty to provide prompt responses to written questions in the House within the 10 day target, as stipulated in the Companion.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 09/01/2023 15:53:13 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
tabling member	2478 label Biography information for Lord Rogan

1546224

registered interest
date	28/11/2022
answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
answering dept id	92
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
hansard heading	Oral Questions: House of Lords
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Leader of the House what steps he is taking to encourage members to keep supplementary questions short and succinct.
tabling member printed	Lord Palmer
uin	HL3812
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2022 answer text <p>I agree with the noble Lord that members should aim to keep their contributions concise and, in accordance with the Companion, confined to no more than two points. This enables as many peers from across the House as possible the opportunity to scrutinise the Government.</p><p>It is the responsibility of the whole House to work collectively on this issue and I am sure the usual channels will make every effort to ensure their members keep to this standard of practice. In June 2022 the usual channels wrote collectively to all members to remind them of these rules and the courtesies of the House more generally.</p><p>I will also remind colleagues of the importance of ministers providing succinct answers to questions, in accordance with the practice of the House, to enable the House to operate in the most effective manner including the recommendation that initial answers should be no more than 75 words.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 09/12/2022 12:13:24 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
tabling member	3192 label Biography information for Lord Palmer