Select Committee on Procedure Minutes of Evidence

APPENDIX 1

  1.  Ordinary Written and Named Day Questions tabled each financial year from 1994-95 to 2001-02 (including average per day)

  2.  Ordinary Written and Named Day Questions shown as a percentage of total of average tabled per day for years 94-95 to 2001-02

  3.  Number of Oral and Written Questions tabled each day in a four week period in March for each year 1998-2002

(including graphs)

  4.  Number of Questions tabled on each sitting day for 20 days in the period October to December from 1997 to 2001 (including graphs)

  5.  Total number of Questions tabled each day from October to March 2000-01 and 2001-02 (including graphs)

  6.  Total number of Named Day Questions by type tabled each day in October and November 2000 and 2001 (including graphs)

  7.  Summary of the Answers to the Questions tabled by Mr Simon Burns regarding length of time taken by Departments to answer Named Day Questions (November 2001)

ORDINARY WRITTEN AND NAMED DAY QUESTIONS TABLED EACH FINANCIAL YEAR FROM 1994-95 TO 2001-02

Ordinary Written Questions	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
No. of Questions	21,699	22,710	16,830	17,032	19,369	17,312	16,501	29,021
No. of Sitting Days	157	156	152	146	157	158	160	138
Average per Day	138	146	111	117	123	110	103	210
Earliest Named Day Questions	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
No. of Questions	9,157	9,439	8,022	8,378	10,703	8,308	10,396	12,145
No. of Sitting Days	157	156	152	146	157	158	160	138
Average per Day	58	61	53	57	68	53	65	88
Named Day plus 1 Questions	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
No. of Questions	4,026	4,461	3,206	2,704	2,867	2,315	2,518	2,554
No. of Sitting Days	157	156	152	146	157	158	160	128
Average per Day	26	29	21	19	18	15	16	19
Named Day Others Questions	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
No. of Questions	5,531	5,826	3,338	2,461	3,323	2,674	2,733	3,302
No. of Sitting Days	157	156	152	146	157	158	160	138
Average per Day	35	37	22	19	21	17	17	24

ORDINARY WRITTEN AND NAMED DAY QUESTIONS SHOWN AS A PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL OF AVERAGE TABLED PER DAY FOR YEARS 1994-95 TO 2001-02

1994-95	Average per Sitting Day	%
Ordinary Written Questions	138	54
Earliest Named Day Questions	58	23
Named Day +1 Questions	26	10
Other Named Day Questions	35	14
Total	257
1995-96	Average per Sitting Day	%
Ordinary Written Questions	146	53
Earliest Named Day Questions	61	22
Named Day +1 Questions	29	11
Other Named Day Questions	37	14
Total	273
1996-97	Average per Sitting Day	%
Ordinary Written Questions	111	54
Earliest Named Day Questions	53	26
Named Day +1 Questions	21	10
Other Named Day Questions	22	11
Total	207
1997-98	Average per Sitting Day	%
Ordinary Written Questions	117	56
Earliest Named Day Questions	57	27
Named Day +1 Questions	19	9
Other Named Day Questions	17	8
Total	210
1998-99	Average per Sitting Day	%
Ordinary Written Questions	123	53
Earliest Named Day Questions	68	30
Named Day +1 Questions	18	8
Other Named Day Questions	21	9
Total	230
1999-2000	Average per Sitting	%
Ordinary Written Questions	110	56
Earliest Named Day Questions	53	27
Named Day +1 Questions	15	8
Other Named Day Questions	17	9
Total	195
2000-01	Average per Sitting Day	%
Ordinary Written Questions	103	51
Earliest Named Day Questions	65	32
Named Day +1 Questions	16	8
Other Named Day Questions	17	8
Total	201
2001-02	Average per Sitting Day	%
Ordinary Written Questions	210	62
Earliest Named Day Questions	88	26
Named Day +1 Questions	19	6
Other Named Day Questions	24	7
Total	341

NUMBER OF ORAL AND WRITTEN QUESTIONS TABLED EACH DAY IN A FOUR WEEK PERIOD IN MARCH FOR EACH YEAR 1998 to 2001

	Mon	Tues	Weds	Thurs	Fri	Mon	Tues	Weds	Thurs	Fri	Mon	Tues	Weds	Thurs	Fri	Mon	Tues	Weds	Thurs	Fri	Total
Orals
2002	135	120	293	99	0	89	97	290	156	0	125	130	365	127	0	103	135	327	72	0	2,663
2001	54	106	285	87	0	63	89	216	67	0	71	84	260	74	0	52	68	204	59	0	1,839
2000	70	105	268	113	0	53	84	184	87	0	80	131	239	101	0	60	115	224	107	0	2,021
1999	78	84	235	95	0	90	68	259	73	0	100	95	258	0	0	0	106	273	74	0	1,888
1998	141	102	212	108	0	76	140	244	106	0	82	157	223	105	0	73	127	235	0	0	2,131
Written
2002	897	492	504	321	51	441	444	555	458	80	379	426	339	360	63	448	475	493	283	101	7,610
2001	165	218	273	208	22	103	270	301	197	43	175	264	209	213	58	241	242	214	260	24	3,700
2000	263	220	294	147	56	189	252	239	240	56	245	263	182	204	81	168	158	164	145	40	3,606
1999	277	360	253	269	91	219	366	320	229	67	233	322	266	209	74	269	213	295	168	53	4,553
1998	136	280	192	173	115	206	262	218	215	95	177	214	240	218	53	219	262	250	205	56	3,786

NUMBER OF QUESTIONS TABLED ON EACH SITTING DAY FOR 20 SITTING DAYS IN THE PERIOD OCTOBER TO DECEMBER FROM 1997 TO 2001

(INCLUDES ORALS EXCEPT PRIME MINISTERS, TRANSFERS AND CARDED QUESTIONS)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Dates
2001	340	528	429	548	102	468	510	389	531	66	359	556	514	622	160	522	542	565	543	96	22/10 to 16/11
2000	912	563	479	256	51	181	629	362	365	89	339	535	332	230	58	341	465	374	388	130	23/10 to 17/11
1999	312	364	379	297	50	189	409	206	260	53	332	442	386	369	87	331	302	293	322	45	25/10 to 5/11 & 22/11 to 3/12
1998	387	541	341	360	30	246	444	331	319	287	200	314	380	227	35	297	384	386	292	49	26/10 to 13/11 & 30/11 to 4/12
1997	296	631	537	565	76	388	604	647	419	93	513	360	638	374	76	421	475	851	700	308	3/11 to 28/11

TOTAL NUMBER OF WRITTEN QUESTIONS TABLED EACH DAY FROM END OF SUMMER RECESS TO DATE F0R 2000-01 AND 2001-02

	Oct Recalls														Nov.
	& Recess	15	16	17	18	19	22/23	23/24	24/25	25/26	26/27	29/30	30/31	31/1	1/2	2/3	5/6	6/7	7/8	8/9	9/10	12/13	13/14
2001	891	442	446	409	217	171	233	419	342	386	95	344	308	324	413	44	245	398	376	403	144	409	380
2000	299	0	0	0	0	0	697	333	325	143	19	71	521	228	212	60	243	409	192	130	51	261	314

														Dec.
	14/15	15/16	16/17	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24	26/27	27/28	28/29	29/-	30/-	3/-	4/-	5/6	6/7	7/8	10/11	11/12	12/13	13/14	14/15
2001	479	399	91	491	472	393	540	59	483	476	391	376	170	457	306	375	301	40	395	341	375	348	201
2000	271	274	59	203	295	242	217	68	192	206	77	-	-	-	-	532	300	51	250	235	313	138	45

						Jan.
	17/18	18/19	19/20	-/21	Recess	-/8	8/9	9/10	10/11	11/12	14/15	15/16	16/17	17/18	18/19	21/22	22/23	23/24	24/25	25/26	28/29	29/30	30/31
2001	589	316	518	-	117	-	628	453	452	174	403	421	475	282	152	438	470	383	395	103	395	620	617
2000	205	202	244	138	133	189	392	423	201	26	139	276	253	287	31	87	284	227	180	67	127	282	249

		Feb.
	31/1	1/2	4/5	5/6	6/7	7/8	8/9	11/12	12/13	13/14	14/15	Recess	25/26	26/27	27/28	28/1	1/2	4/5	5/6	6/7	7/8	8/9	11/12
2001	370	135	468	328	382	647	80	284	659	511	464	373	897	492	504	321	51	441	444	555	458	80	284
2000	333	94	192	199	209	259	57	155	333	216	250	106	165	218	273	208	22	103	270	301	197	43	175

	12/13	13/14	14/15	15/16	18/19	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	25/26	26/27			Total
2001	426	339	360	63	448	475	493	283	101	885	973			38,368
2000	264	209	213	58	241	242	219	260	24	132	262			19,620

TOTAL NUMBER OF NAMED DAY QUESTIONS BY TYPE TABLED EACH DAY IN OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 2000 AND 2001

Earliest Named Day Questions

	22/23	23/24	24/25	25/26	26/27	29/30	30/31	31/1	1/2	2/3	5/6	6/7	7/8	8/9	9/10	12/13	13/14	14/15	15/16	16/17	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24	TOTAL
2001	43	103	80	73	43	88	92	127	115	11	65	69	80	143	32	96	121	103	113	25	118	90	74	87	13	2,004
2000	160	102	88	27	1	25	190	59	65	18	50	59	70	42	14	97	48	63	74	17	34	94	83	72	21	1,573

Named Day Plus 1

	22/23	23/24	24/25	25/26	26/27	29/30	30/31	31/1	1/2	2/3	5/6	6/7	7/8	8/9	9/10	12/13	13/14	14/15	15/16	16/17	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24	TOTAL
2001	1	20	16	25	1	9	13	29	29	2	14	41	19	30	14	29	40	40	10	1	19	34	35	33	7	511
2000	24	2	24	12	2	7	15	9	0	3	2	51	2	12	4	1	36	11	18	6	7	78	10	4	26	366

Named Day Others

	22/23	23/24	24/25	25/26	26/27	29/30	30/31	31/1	1/2	2/3	5/6	6/7	7/8	8/9	9/10	12/13	13/14	14/15	15/16	16/17	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24	TOTAL
2001	36	56	58	58	2	59	39	17	34	6	48	27	50	16	0	33	7	25	41	1	44	51	18	101	6	833
2000	0	20	8	12	0	9	20	42	17	0	40	15	4	8	2	44	64	24	5	2	47	6	23	15	1	428

QUESTIONS TABLED BY MR SIMON BURNS (NOVEMBER 2001):

   (1)  How many named day parliamentary written questions were tabled to the Department between 15 October and 5 November; and what proportion of these have received holding answers.

  (2)  What proportion of the named day questions tabled between 15 October and 5 November received a substantive answer (a) within three parliamentary days, (b) within seven parliamentary days, (c) within 10 parliamentary days, (d) within 15 parliamentary days and (e) over 15 parliamentary days after the holding answer was issued.

Dept (answered on 16/11 unless otherwise stated)	Total No of Questions	No that received a holding reply	After Holding	Reply,	Substantive	Answers	Within:
			3 days	7 days	10 days	15 days	over 15 days
Cabinet Office col. 896W	20	7 (35%)	1	2	1	3	0
DCMS col. 951W	44	27 (61%)	20	4	2	1	0
MoD cols. 957-8W and
21/11 cols. 295-6W	153	53 (35%)	51	1	0	0	1
DfES cols. 929-30W	191	95 (50%)	44	28	7	9	7
DEFRA cols. 972-3W	254	201 (79%)	40	62	19	19	61
HMT col. 915W	143	75 (52%)	53	12	5	5	0
FCO col. 926W	66	4 (6%)	2	1	1	0	0
DH col. 950W	345	210 (61%)	145	32	19	2	0 (12 still to be answered)
HO cols. 962-3W	156	92 (59%)	62	12	7	7	3
DfID cols. 932-3W	21	14 (67%)	10	4	0	0	0
LCD 27/11 col. 832W	24	12 (50%)	6	5	1	0	0
NIO col. 938W	32	25 (78%)	0	21	0	0	0
PM col. 897W	37	7 (19%)	5	2	0	0	0
POC col. 897W	7	0 (0%)	0	0	0	0	0
SCOT col. 931W	Figures not given
SG col. 895W	5	0 (0%)	0	0	0	0	0
DTI col. 918W	104	54 (52%)	49	4	1	0	0
DTLR col. 913W	261	81 (31%)	72	9	0	0	0
OSSW cols. 939-40W	10	0 (0%)	0	0	0	0	0
DWP cols. 934-5W	106	18 (17%)	1	10	3	0	2 (1 transf'd one still to be answered)

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Prepared 26 June 2002