Speeches by Campbell.

“It is not an innovation in the sense that any decisions have been made—not by a long shot—but it is something that I think will be pitched to Modernisation at some point in the future to look at. We are doing a study on the use of time, which at the minute is concentrating on the Backbench Business Committee and the Pe…”

“You are very welcome.”

“It could do, but, with respect, it is for this Committee to consider whether that is a good idea. I do not have a hard-and-fast view, because of what I have been alluding to, which is that if I were an MP who wanted an urgent answer, I would be slightly worried if people took the longer timescale as the norm, rather th…”

“Maybe. It is that lack of consistency, isn’t it? Well, let’s be honest—we will pretend that this is just between us—there are some questions that will go into Departments where you need to be a bit more careful about the answer that you put out there, aren’t there? That is just the reality of the world in which we work…”

“There will certainly be examples of that. That is why I mentioned earlier that I think it is an interesting discussion—although it is up to you—whether there needs to be a distinction. As I said before, it is about getting timely answers. If named day questions are used in order to get quicker answers, we have talked a…”

“I have no doubt that some will be, for the very reason that you have given. I have seen lists of people who have put down questions, and they have just put down named day questions, or 95% of what they are doing is named day questions. As I said before, that may be because they are dealing with that number of cases and…”

“I may regret saying this if I meet up with permanent secretaries, but I agree absolutely with what you say. I think it is really interesting. We have some great permanent secretaries, don’t get me wrong, but it is to do with the way in which MPs and Parliament are regarded by Government—not just this Government but any…”

“First of all, with respect, I think it is important that you continue to do that. Even if some of them are struggling, knowing that there are clear targets about what they should be doing is important, until the targets change or the situation changes. It is uncomfortable for Ministers and Departments, presumably, but …”

“No, that’s not true. In that situation it was spread across Ministers, and I think that is the right approach to take.”

“I cannot give you examples of that sharing of information, but it will be happening, not least because to some extent there is a flow of Ministers from one Department to another. It is interesting, when you look within Departments as well as between Departments, that some Ministers manage to answer 80% on time and othe…”

“It is tricky—there are timelines, and if people fall foul of them they are held to account—but I gently say to colleagues that if there is a rush to get something out the door and it is not really an answer to the question, it will come back. It is a bit short-sighted to take that approach, because it will come back as…”

“I am slightly nervous because I used to get a lot of the questions to answer at the Home Office—clearly, I was not liked by the Home Secretary—[Laughter.]”

“First of all, there shouldn’t be inconsistencies—let me be absolutely clear about that—whether it is a written question or information given under an FOI. But as you say, the Government have recognised that there is inconsistency, and we do again remind Departments of their obligations in this regard. I inquired with m…”

“I think this is the answer, and I expect Ministers to do this now. Ultimately, they are the person who agrees the sign-off of the letter. It might be a fairly swift process of trusting your office to put something in front of you to sign off, but Ministers need to write the response, be cognisant and ask, "Where did th…”

“I think it might well be a reason for delay. To be entirely frank, I do not think that Government—not just this Government, but Government—do this particularly well. Given the increased volume of questions, it is an increasing challenge. People may complain that their question has been transferred when it should not ha…”

“There is a cause for concern, or a query, over whether AI is used to generate questions in the first instance. Going back to the beginning, that may be one reason why we are getting more and more questions. In terms of responses, Government Departments have an AI playbook that sets out exactly what they are able to do,…”

“But earlier on in the process, if the wording of the question were clearer, perhaps it would be clearer where that question should go. If you put down a question that cuts across Departments—obviously, there are cross-departmental issues, and Government deal with those in all sorts of ways in policymaking terms—do not …”

“I suppose the easy answer, which might nevertheless be true, is that it is because of the pressure that has built up, given the number of PQs that are coming in. As I have said, there is no doubt that some Departments feel under much more pressure and are having to find a way of dealing with that. The reality is that t…”

“Let me get to that in a moment. I have said that it is a departmental responsibility to do this properly. That should remain, because Departments are part of Government, to some extent, but they have their own independent role to play. As we have said, the Cabinet Office is looking at this, because ultimately it is goi…”

“The idea of blocks is a long-standing response, particularly when there are repetitive questions, and it is right that people can be pointed elsewhere. I always think that there is a case for more information rather than less, if it helps, and explaining why a question has been blocked is interesting to explore. But th…”