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Questions to Ministers

22.9Questions addressed to Ministers should relate to the public affairs with which they are officially connected, to proceedings pending in Parliament, or to matters of administration for which they are responsible.

The central importance of ministerial responsibility to the procedure has been strongly emphasised by the Speaker.1 A question should be addressed to the Minister who is primarily responsible.2 It is for the Government to decide which Minister will answer; questions are transferred between Ministers by the Table Office on behalf of the House following notification from the government department in question.3 Responsibility for answering a questions remains with the Minister to whom it was originally tabled until another agrees to reply.

It is a long-established principle that decisions on the transfer of questions rest with Ministers and are not a matter on which the Chair seeks to intervene.4 The Speaker has ruled that it is out of order to ask a Minister for their reasons for transferring a question. However, the Speaker expects departments to act promptly in transferring questions; in practice, this means within two sitting days.5 Decisions on transfer should be consistent,6 and Members should receive notification of transfers.7 Where there is a genuine element of doubt about which Minister is responsible and an oral question is involved, the Member should have the benefit of that doubt.8 The Speaker has deprecated transfer of a question for oral answer which has had the effect of depriving a Member of an opportunity to be called to put a supplementary question, where the line of ministerial responsibility is not clear cut.9

Footnotes

  1. 1. HC Deb (1958–59) 599, cc 1181–82; ibid (1995–96) 278, c 609; ibid (2000–01) 363, c 315; ibid (31 October 2011) 534, c 618; ibid (1 March 2016) 606, c 835.
  2. 2. Other than those of a cross-cutting nature under an experiment taken in Westminster Hall, see for example, see HC Deb (23 January 2003) 398, c 143WH; notices of questions were addressed to the Government rather than to individual departments. See also Chapter 23.
  3. 3. HC Deb (1929) 231, c 613; ibid (1941–42) 382, c 859.
  4. 4. For example, HC Deb (29 April 2009) 491, cc 885–86; ibid (27 October 2009) 498, cc 161–62. The Speaker has expressed sympathy with Members whose questions have been transferred but the principle is clear (ibid (1995–96) 264, cc 829–30; ibid 268, cc 19–21; ibid (9 June 2008) 477, c 36).
  5. 5. HC Deb (1963–64) 698, c 1032; ibid (1963–64) 699, cc 49–53; ibid (1999–2000) 354, c 245; ibid (29 November 2010) 519, cc 552–53. The Select Committee on Procedure of Session 1966–67 recommended that Ministers should, as a general rule, not later than two sitting days after the appearance of a question on the Notice Paper inform the Member of a proposed transfer (HC 410 (1966–67), para 13), and the 1969–70 Select Committee on Procedure requested the Leader of the House to acquaint departments of the importance which they attached to notice of transfers being given within two sitting days (HC 198 (1969–70)). The Speaker has said that he regarded it as a discourtesy and unfair when Ministers did not, within two days, notify the Member concerned that they intended to transfer a question (HC Deb (1979–80) 986, c 566).
  6. 6. HC Deb (1999–2000) 354, c 245.
  7. 7. HC Deb (20 October 2005) 437, c 1001; ibid (1 July 2008) 478, c 733.
  8. 8. HC Deb (20 July 2004) 424, c 191; ibid (27 March 2006) 444, c 579.
  9. 9. HC Deb (2001–02) 374, cc 379–80.