Speeches by Burghart.

“Yes, we might get to that. We might draw attention to it on the Floor of the House, or we might use FOI. As I say, some Government Departments do not understand that when they try to hide things from us, it makes us believe that there is something worth finding. Often, they would do better just to tell us what it is an…”

“My colleagues would often find it easier to resolve queries via email, rather than by having to go into the Table Office in person, when they are about simple things. I understand the Table Office’s argument—“We’ll end up with email chains from 650 Members, and this will become a full-time job on its own”—but I think i…”

“I totally concur. There are two reasons why Government Departments do not answer questions in a timely way. Sometimes, it is because they do not have capacity; I am afraid I would argue that this is one of their essential duties and they need to find capacity. The other reason is that it is not in their interest to ans…”

“I think we touched on this last time: at the most basic level, the Government and Ministers have a responsibility, in “Erskine May” and under the ministerial code, to be open and transparent. That is to say that they should share information with us, with caveats. Those caveats are quite clearly laid out: things that a…”

“You would need to ask the Government Departments.”

“Yes.”

“I would say two things. We discussed the reason for the volume last time. Partially, the uptick after a more fallow period after the election was because there were lots of new MPs learning how the House worked. It is also the case that when questionable things are going on in Government, that will attract attention. O…”

“We would like to see some clarity given to the Table Office, so that it knows what it can let through. We do not want to get rid of the factual basis rule altogether, but we think that there should be more scope for Members to ask questions. Often the Government blocks what we would consider to be perfectly legitimate …”

“Oh, it would never have been the Minister’s fault in those circumstances! Of course mistakes happen, and sometimes political games are played, but what we ought to move towards, in line with the rules of the House and the rules for Ministers, is the Government either being open about why they are not handing things ove…”

“You are way ahead of me.”

“I caveat my remarks by saying at the outset that we have a good working relationship with the Table Office. Even though we do not always agree, everybody who works there is always very courteous and often tries to help us to find a way through. The problem is perhaps not so much the rules as the interpretation of them.…”

“I agree with what Wendy says. To recap a point that we have been over several times, because it is very important, there is a slight danger that over time we will end up in a system where MPs stop relying on parliamentary questions because the process is too slow and the outcome is unreliable when you know that if you …”

“Particularly in the context of receiving large numbers of inadequate responses, I could see that the Government might well say, “We will put a limit, and then we will fill up that limit with inadequate answers.” That would significantly reduce the level of scrutiny that the Executive would receive, so I would be quite …”

“I am Alex Burghart. I am the Conservative Member of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar, and I am the shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.”

“I haven’t considered this one deeply. One should look at the hours of the House. It is certainly conceivable that something might be said in Parliament that a Member then wants to dig into. On Mondays, we are here till 10 pm, on Tuesdays till 7 pm and so on. I would not want us to end up in the position where, as Wendy…”

“Just to probe that, why do you ask the question? What would be the driver for change?”

“I would not because, as I say, when the House is sitting you have an alternative, which is to come in in person and speak to the Table Office. You just do not have that if you represent a seat in Scotland or even further afield, so it makes sense that the calibration is slightly different during recess.”

“Research does not stop because it is recess or because you are in your constituency. There is great value in being able to continue to put down questions, even if they are not submitted to Departments until the House returns, so I think that is helpful. When we are here, there is obviously a limit on how many questions…”

“No, I don’t agree.”

“I think that AI is increasingly going to be used in work and life, across the board. The key thing, obviously, is that you have a Member who owns what the question is. Sometimes a suggested question might be drafted by a researcher, and sometimes in the future it might be drafted by AI, but ultimately, if I ask a quest…”