APPENDIX 15
Letter from Sir Sydney Chapman MP to the
Chairman of the Committee
Further to my question at the 1922 Committee
last Wednesday and our subsequent brief chat, I write to confirm
that I did complete the questionnaire and, for ease of reference,
enclose a copy of it kindly provided by Carolyn Bowes in the Procedure
Committee Office.
However, in my suggestions at the 1922 Committee
I was a little more comprehensive than I was in the questionnaire
and so would like to confirm that the three suggestions I made
were:
1. Parliamentary questions should be put
down for oral answer no later than a week (instead of a fortnight)
before answer.
2. There might be 10 minutes or so at the
beginning of each question time for topical issues to be raised.
This could take another form: private notice questions but the
material point is that it should be before PQs rather than at
the end of them.
3. That the Speaker might have discretion
to select certain questions if he felt that an important area
of a department's responsibilities was not adequately covered
in the ballot. For example: DEFRA—if there was no question
balloted about rural matters, he may have the authority to push
one such question "up the order paper".
9 February 2002
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