Committee publication · Correspondence · 14 May 2025

Letter from the Chair to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster relating to WPQ performance, dated 3 April 2025

Inquiry: Written Parliamentary Questions: Departmental performance in Session 2024-26

Summary

The Procedure Committee Chair writes to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster expressing concern about the Cabinet Office's sharp decline in answering written parliamentary questions on time. Performance fell from 89–96% in previous periods to 69–73% in July–December 2024, well below the 85% standard. The Chair requests explanation and assurance of improvement by 2 May 2025.

Key findings

Cabinet Office WPQ on-time performance collapsed from 89–96% (Feb–May 2024) to 69–73% (Jul–Dec 2024), falling significantly below the 85% acceptable standard
Named Day questions answered on time fell to 69% (79/114); Ordinary questions to 73% (596/817) in the recent period
This represents a sudden and notable decline from the Cabinet Office's historically strong performance in recent years
Concerns also raised regarding quality and tone of some recent answers to written questions
Committee will continue monitoring and may require ministerial appearance if improvement does not materialise

Tone

Critical

Topics

parliamentary-accountabilitygovernment-performancewritten-questions

Key actors

Cat Smith MP, Pat McFadden MP, Cabinet Office, Procedure Committee, Leader of the House, House of Commons Table Office

Notable line

“… this sudden and notable decline is deeply concerning”

Key Quotes

“… the standard considered acceptable by us and by our predecessors is for 85% of questions to be responded to on time”
— Cat Smith MP · establishing the benchmark for WPQ performance

“The Cabinet Office has often performed strongly in recent years, and so this sudden and notable decline is deeply concerning.”
— Cat Smith MP · expressing alarm at the deterioration in performance

“We will continue to monitor the Cabinet Office's performance and, should we not see sufficient improvement, we will expect you or a Ministerial colleague to appear before us to discuss this further.”
— Cat Smith MP · setting terms for escalation

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Source · parliament.uk record ↗