Following the introduction of the Q&A system, the Department cancelled an annual subscription to receive a daily feed of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) tabled to the Department. This has resulted in a saving of just over £6500 per year. In addition, the Department has made savings associated with the cost of printing hardcopies of PQs and delivering answers to Parliament each day. The Department worked with the House authorities in order to ensure that the introduction of the system did not require any changes or improvements to the Department\u2019s existing ICT systems. DFID Ministers are committed to ensuring that written PQs receive timely answers, and it is welcome that the new system ensures that hon and Rt hon Members receive their answers instantly once uploaded.<\/p>
<\/p>
<\/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. 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>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/55", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Desmond Swayne"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "New Forest West"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Mr Desmond Swayne"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2015-01-06", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2015-01-06T12:43:51.883Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "20"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "International Development"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "International Development"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2014-12-15", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Written Questions"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate she has made of the savings to her Department from the Q&A system in the (a) 12 months and (b) five years since 4 June 2014; what additional ICT systems or improvements to existing systems her Department has introduced or plans to introduce that would not have been feasible without the Q&A system; and what assessment she has made of the extent to which the system has made it easier to answer questions from hon. Members on time.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4124", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Chi Onwurah"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Newcastle upon Tyne Central"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Chi Onwurah"} ], "uin" : "218786"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }