‘To ask the Secretary of State’: parliamentary questions in 2015-16
How accountable were ministers to scrutiny by MPs in 2015-2016? Which departments received most questions, and how quickly did they respond?
How accountable were ministers to scrutiny by MPs in 2015-2016? Which departments received most questions, and how quickly did they respond? What does this tell us about the outlook for the new administration and the new departments? Leah Owen looks at the numbers.
Despite the upheaval of the past month– the EU referendum, the new Prime Minister, Shadow Cabinet tumult, and more – the processes of government continue. Parliamentary questions (PQs) are an important tool in holding ministers to account. There were over 37,000 questions tabled in 2015/16. Examining both the recent data from the Procedure Committee, and daily Parliament reports, we look at how these questions fared, examining Commons questions only, and looking at ordinary and named day questions together. New departments already facing scrutiny The new departments – DEEU, BEIS and DIT – will need to find their feet quickly in many respects, and responding to PQs is one. The general list of questions and responses published by Parliament shows that DEEU already received 104 questions from MPs in the last four days of Parliament. DIT received 35 questions, while BEIS received 112. It’s understandable that new departments might experience early problems (DEEU and BEIS both already have 39 late questions between them), as systems and Brexit policy are established but all three departments are likely to receive considerable scrutiny. Watching how they respond to this (especially their performance after Parliament returns) will be an important measure of their success – will DEEU, a small but politically key department, respond quickly? What about BEIS – a department with most of its functions already in place, but formed of a partial merger of two departments with ‘substandard’ timeliness? PQs continue to address an extremely broad range of issues. Of the 1008 PQs answered 6-11 June (the last full week before the referendum):
- 89 questions addressed Europe (46 addressing the ‘Return to Sender’ campaign).
- 61 addressed refugees, asylum, and immigration
- 52 addressed specific health issues, from obesity to MRSA to HPV
- 91 primarily addressed local, regional, and subnational issues, from the HS2 railway line to Dartford Crossing tolls
- 57 addressed armed conflict or human rights overseas
The remainder addressed everything from tax evasion to tanks – a wide range of topics determined by MP (and constituent) interests. How do departments compare? The total number of questions submitted to departments increased from 30,095 in 2014-15, to 37,561 in 2015-16 (an increase of 25%). This change is less significant than it looks, however, as the 2015-16 parliament sat for more days than 2014-15 (158 versus 134) – meaning that the number of questions per sitting day only increased from an average of 225 to 239. The number of questions asked per day to each department varied comparatively little from one year to another.
- Keywords
- Parliamentary scrutiny Accountability
- Administration
- Cameron-Clegg coalition government Cameron government May government
- Legislature
- House of Commons
- Publisher
- Institute for Government