TNAG-1010-FCO40-1260-Handling-of-Parliamentary-business-concerning-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 11

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7. Answers to Parliamentary Questions should, wherever possible, be no more than 50 words long (though this limit can be exceeded if necessary in replying to particularly complex Questions). They must be as positive and helpful as possible. They must answer the Question as posed, and should not usually include material additional to that strictly required by the reply - though in appropriate cases this rule can be interpreted flexibly if we wish to draw attention to some particularly favourable point. Where the information provided is based only on estimates, this

should be made clear in the reply. A Question will often end with the request to the Minister to "make a statement" on the subject referred to. This does not mean that the reply should be longer than normal: any "statement" that it is thought appro- priate to make should be limited to a sentence or two, and the whole reply should still be kept within the 50 word limit if possible.

8. It is an accepted convention that officials should not have to spend a disproportionate amount of time and effort in preparing replies to Parliamentary Questions. Where it is considered that it would be unduly expensive in terms of official time to find out the full answer to a Question, Ministers may be prepared to give only a partial reply: we are, however, required to consult the Parliamentary Unit in advance whenever we propose to submit an incomplete answer. Where the information required is not available soon enough to enable the reply to be given on the date stipulated, the Minister may undertake to send the questioner the information later. This can be done either by arranging for it to be published in the official report, or by the Minister undertaking to write to the Member with the information when it is available.

House of Commons: Oral Questions

9.

Approximately 1 hour of Parliamentary time is set aside each day from Monday to Thursday for Government Ministers to reply to oral Questions. About 30-40 Questions are answered in each session. The Ministers from the various Departments take it in turn to deal with Questions: the FCO's turn normally comes round every fourth Wednesday, but occasionally we may have to answer Questions on other days. Members must give a minimum of 2 sitting days and a maximum of 2 weeks notice of an Oral Question. In practice, since there are almost always more Questions for FCO Ministers than can be dealt with in the time available, only Questions put down with the full 2 weeks notice normally receive an oral reply. Questions that are not reached are treated as Written Questions (see below), unless the Members concerned prefer to withdraw them or defer them to another day.

10. Our deadline for submitting replies to Oral Questions is normally set by the Parliamentary Unit a full week before the date that the Question is due to be answered. This is because Ministers require plenty of time to familiarise themselves with briefs which may cover over 30 widely differing subjects. The information contained in the reply can, however, be updated right up to the moment when the answer is given, if this is necessay, to take account of developments that take place after the original deadline.

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