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<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>
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