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<p>The electronic Q&A system has removed the requirement to subscribe to the TSO
feed for Parliamentary Questions (PQs) resulting in a saving to the Department of
£6,504.40 per year.</p><p>The reduced paper costs, although relatively small, are
also welcome both in environmental and financial terms.</p><p>The Northern Ireland
Office has not had to introduce, plan to introduce or improve any existing ICT systems.</p><p>The
Q&A system has allowed the department to answer PQs later in the day than the
previous paper-based system, mitigating against the small number of cases where answering
close to the deadline was unavoidable. It also allows hon and Rt hon Members to receive
their answers instantly once uploaded, and on the electronic platform of their choosing.</p><p>One
of the benefits of the new system is the possibility for the reporting of the timeliness
of answers to Parliamentary Questions to be delivered with greater consistency and
accuracy across all answering bodies.</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><p> </p>
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