The Parliamentary session may only be two days old, but we already have a candidate for the most questions asked on a single day.
Lib Dem MP David Laws (Yeovil) has managed to ask 202 PQs today, and 175 PQs were to a single Department - the DWP. If you’re sad enough to want to see the questions, click here.
MPs have been very uppity of late when they haven’t had their questions answered within a week or two - but is it any surprise when Departments can get overloaded like this? I wouldn’t be surprised to see the following question sometime soon:
“To ask the Secretary of State for XXXX, how many staff his/her Department employs to deal with the answering of Parliamentary Questions.”
Edit: Obviously Kerron and I think alike. This will teach me to have the draft post sitting there all morning without posting it…
redtamarin[at]gmail.com
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Praguetory said this on November 20th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
I read on the Tom Watson site that the same MP asked 1128 questions last year of which 273 related to tax credits (he is an expert in this area too and most likely knew the answers). The cost of each question is £134. An abuse of the system and I think it is time something was done.
Liz said this on November 20th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
So not content with changing the rules to make it nigh on impossible for ordinary citizens or pressure groups to ask Freedom of Information Act questions the Labour party know wants to restrict the right of MP’s to question them as well. Shame on the whole undemocratic, rotten to the core, lot of ‘em.
matt said this on November 20th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
Matt, if it wasn’t for the “whole undemocratic, rotten to the core, lot of ‘em” there wouldn’t even BE a freedom of information act!!
Ian G said this on November 20th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
I’m not saying asking Parliamentary Questions is a bad thing. I’m saying is it wise and is it necessasry to ask so many questions in one go, and isn’t it massively hypocritical for MPs to complain about slow responses afterwards?
Red Tamarin said this on November 20th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
And yet, if he’d asked this questions last month, the Gvt would have found it quite easy to ignore them until the parliamentary year was over, and the PQ slate wiped clean. Seems sensible to me - this way they have to answer them.
Give me the truth said this on November 21st, 2006 at 9:04 am
Ask no questions and you’ll be told no lies…
Chris said this on November 21st, 2006 at 9:43 am
Look at the questions he tabled, he is mainly re-asking questions which the Government couldn’t be bothered, or more liklely didn’t want to answer in the last session, shame all MPs aren’t as bright.
sally said this on November 21st, 2006 at 5:40 pm