As Leader of the House, I take my duty to represent the House to His Majesty\u2019s 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>
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>
I believe an apology is appropriate in such circumstances, but that it is a matter for each individual department to determine.<\/p>
<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4200", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord True"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord True"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2024-02-27", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2024-02-27T12:30:16.207Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "92"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : ""} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Leader of the House of Lords"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2024-02-13", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Government Departments: Written Questions"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "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.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/883", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Jopling"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Jopling"} ], "uin" : "HL2441"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1460482", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Leader of the House of Lords"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1460482/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
As Leader of the House, I take my responsibility to ensure all Ministers provide full, timely and accurate responses to Questions for Written Answers (QWAs) very seriously.<\/p>
I regularly remind Front Bench colleagues of their obligation to the House as stipulated in the Companion and of the importance of answering QWAs within the 10 day target. This has been raised regularly at Front Bench meetings and I have previously written to colleagues on the issue.<\/p>
My office works closely with all departments across Government to ensure prompt responses to all QWAs. This is a process that has been followed with the Department of Health and Social Care, the Home Office, and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4329", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Baroness Evans of Bowes Park"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Baroness Evans of Bowes Park"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2022-04-27", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2022-04-27T16:44:13.273Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "92"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : ""} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Leader of the House of Lords"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2022-04-26", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Government Departments: Written Questions"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Leader of the House when she last drew the attention of Ministers and Permanent Secretaries to the fact that several Departments have not answered Questions for Written Answer within ten working days; in particular (1) the Department of Health and Social Care, (2) the Home Office, and (3) the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/883", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Jopling"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Jopling"} ], "uin" : "HL7966"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1311978", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Leader of the House of Lords"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1311978/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
As Leader of the House I take very seriously the responsibility incumbent on all Ministers to provide full, timely and comprehensive answers to Questions for Written Answers. Ministers are reminded regularly of the importance of their obligations to the House, and my office works closely with all departmental Parliamentary teams to help provide advice on what is expected of them in providing such answers.<\/p>
<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4329", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Baroness Evans of Bowes Park"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Baroness Evans of Bowes Park"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2021-04-29", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2021-04-29T12:15:44.347Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "92"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : ""} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Leader of the House of Lords"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2021-04-26", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Government Departments: Written Questions"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Leader of the House what steps she is taking to (1) encourage, and (2) require, ministers to answer written parliamentary questions as tabled.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/3153", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Pearson of Rannoch"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Pearson of Rannoch"} ], "uin" : "HL15259"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 3, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }