Guide to Parliamentary Work

Annex - I will writes

1. This guidance is intended to implement the recent Ministerial agreement on the handling of “I will write” replies to Parliamentary Questions in the House of Commons. The intention is (a) to reduce the frequency of “I will write” replies to a minimum; and (b) to ensure that, when Questions are answered in that form, the subsequent substantive responses are made accessible to Members and to the public by publication in Hansard.

2. The overriding rule must be that wherever possible a substantive answer should be given to all Parliamentary Questions within the required timescale. Named day questions must be answered on the date stated; ordinary written questions should normally be answered within a working week.

3. An “I will write” reply” is the answer provided by Departments when they are unable to answer the Question in the time required and intend to send the requested information by letter at a later date. This answer, in the form “I will write to the Hon Member…”, is published in Hansard. This form of reply is different from a “holding reply”, which should be sent when it is not possible to answer on a named day, and when the intention is to send an answer on a later date. Holding answers are not printed by Hansard. Departments should ensure that holding answers are clearly distinguished from “I will write” replies, by using a clearly different formula: “I shall let the [Rt] Hon Member have a reply as soon as possible".

4. When questions are tabled in the run-up to Prorogation, Ministers should, of course, strive to answer them substantively before Prorogation; but, if this is not possible, Ministers should – instead of issuing an “I will write” reply – answer the question substantively with the following form of words “It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon [or Rt Hon] Member in the time available before Prorogation”. It will then be open to the Member concerned to re-table the question in the new session if they wish.

5. There is no reason to use the “I will write” formula before a recess as questions can be answered during these periods and printed in the special editions of Hansard.

6. An “I will write” answer should be given only rarely, when there is exceptional reason for delay. In these cases, every effort should be made to ensure that the subsequent substantive response is sent as soon as possible. Departments will wish to bear in mind their departmental target for replying to letters from Members of Parliament.

7. When the substantive response has been issued, it should be sent to the Hansard for printing in the Official Report in the same way as for other Written Answers. The House of Commons should receive the following number of copies, all marked with the heading “Parliamentary Questions – I will write”:

• 1 - Official Report
• 1 – Library, Oriel Room
• 1 - Upper Table Office
• 1 – Library, Derby Gate
• 15 – Press Gallery

8. Departments should supply a photocopy of the original question and answer as a cover page to the substantive response (as is done at present with Chief Executives’ letters).

9. If the subsequent response is longer than Hansard would normally publish, notification will be printed that the response is available in the Library of the House. The response will be available to Members in the Library and on application to the House of Commons Information Office.

10. Any outstanding responses must be received by the last day of the Session, so that they can be printed in the Official Report.

11. Ministers will need to bear in mind that the contents of their subsequent letters will be published. If they wish to provide personal or confidential information, which would not be appropriate for publication, Departments should make this clear in the Answer, instead of using the standard “I will write” formula they should use the following “As my answer contains personal information, I will communicate privately with the hon. Member”. This will ensure that the Answer is not recorded as an Answer to which a substantive response is outstanding. In these circumstances, a copy should not be sent to Hansard, the Library or the Table Office.

12. The Leader of the House’s office will provide an analysis of the number of “I will write” replies and of the time taken to provide a substantive response, based on data supplied by the House of Commons Library. Any Question which has not received a substantive response by the end of the Session will be recorded as unanswered. These records will be provided quarterly to Departments for checking and are submitted annually to the Public Administration Select Committee.

13. Departments should make every effort to use the following when responding to questions: