On 13 October 2011 the House agreed to a 3-month experiment with restrictions on the number of questions which could be tabled electronically on any one day and an earlier deadline for their submission. The Table Office has provided the Committee with a memorandum assessing the impact of those changes, and recommending that the experiment be made permanent. The Committee, therefore agree with the Table Office's conclusions and recommend that the restrictions on e-tabling which have been piloted should continue. The Committee also recommends that the consequent upgrade to the e-tabling system include improvements such as the introduction of a basket in which to keep PQs prior to their submission, if and when they prove technically feasible.

On 13 October 2011 the House agreed to a 3-month experiment with restrictions on the number of questions which could be tabled electronically on any one day and an earlier deadline for their submission. The Table Office has provided us with a memorandum assessing the impact of those changes, and recommending that the experiment be made permanent.

This report builds on work undertaken in the previous Parliament. It contains three sets of recommendations which share a common aim of improving the effectiveness of parliamentary scrutiny. Firstly the Committee recommends that select committees be allowed to table in their own amendments to bills and motions on the floor of the House. Secondly it is recommended that during this Parliament Members and opposition spokespeople be encouraged to table explanatory statements on amendments to bills and that the Government use this facility to provide explanatory statements to clarify the origin of amendments and new clauses proposed on report. Thirdly the Committee recognises that whilst written parliamentary questions are a vital part of parliamentary scrutiny, there is a danger that their value is being eroded by the record numbers being tabled which also imposes significant costs on the public purse. The Committee therefore proposes a three month trial of applying a daily quota of five and an earlier deadline of 6.30 pm from Monday to Thursday and 2.30 pm on sitting Fridays to questions for written answer submitted electronically. They also recommend that, to assist Members, the Government deliver all answers to parliamentary questions to the Member concerned by email at the same time as the answer is delivered to the House

In October 2010 the Committee in response to a report by its predecessor committee began a trial exercise in monitoring unsatisfactory and late answers to written Parliamentary questions. With just over 50 complaints from Members in response to the exercise of which half were followed up. This resulted in answers for Members on a number of occasions in circumstances where they would otherwise have found difficult or impossible to follow up on an inadequate response. The exercise will now come to an end and be put on a more permanent footing.In consideration of a memorandum from the Leader of the House providing statistics on the time taken to respond to WPQs in 2010-12, the committee has sought explanations from Ministers in charge of poorly performing departments for the level of performance in the memorandum and what steps are being taken to improve these levels. The Department for Education had a particularly poor performance and evidence was taken from the Parliamentary Under Secretary and a senior official in the Department which the Committee found unsatisfactory with and so a follow up session with the Permanent Secretary and Secretary of State was undertaken. The Committee will continue its interest in the answering performance of this Department and hold it to further account should its performance not improve markedly.

An examination, in historical context, of the approach the UK Parliament has taken towards the Internet, and its wider implications.