Openess
The government’s much trumpeted commitment to transparency is far from obvious to those who table questions to Ministers.
Questions about an investigation into the British Pregnancy Advisory Service have met with a confirmation that the report has been received but the Minister hasn’t looked at it so it would be “inappropriate to comment further” meaning that no further questions about it can be asked.
Questions about the amount each department has spent on taxis have been answered by some Ministers but others have said that “the information can only be supplied at disproportionate cost” (less costly than the taxi bills I suspect!)
Following the second reading of the Religious Hatred Bill which could lead to people being prosecuted for expounding their beliefs I tabled questions to the Home Office about the number of attacks on Jews Sikhs Muslims and Christians and the number of acts of vandalism on their places of worship.
Back came the enlightening answer “ this information is not collected centrally.” I can only wonder why the Government are so keen to introduce a contentious piece of legislation if they have no idea how big a problem “religious hatred” actually is.
A list of questions tabled by MPs can be found at www.theyworkforyou.com . It also gives an indication as to how hard they are working....
Questions about an investigation into the British Pregnancy Advisory Service have met with a confirmation that the report has been received but the Minister hasn’t looked at it so it would be “inappropriate to comment further” meaning that no further questions about it can be asked.
Questions about the amount each department has spent on taxis have been answered by some Ministers but others have said that “the information can only be supplied at disproportionate cost” (less costly than the taxi bills I suspect!)
Following the second reading of the Religious Hatred Bill which could lead to people being prosecuted for expounding their beliefs I tabled questions to the Home Office about the number of attacks on Jews Sikhs Muslims and Christians and the number of acts of vandalism on their places of worship.
Back came the enlightening answer “ this information is not collected centrally.” I can only wonder why the Government are so keen to introduce a contentious piece of legislation if they have no idea how big a problem “religious hatred” actually is.
A list of questions tabled by MPs can be found at www.theyworkforyou.com . It also gives an indication as to how hard they are working....
posted by David Davies AM at 10:10 AM
4 Comments:
As a MP what feature would you like added to theyworkforyou.com?
They check how quickly you respond to letters which is fair enough but what about chacking on the number of surgeries you hold?
The final touches are being put to the new website!
Excellent. Keep up the good work! This is a very important issue and transparency is vital. I have written a piece on BPAS for my blog and linked to you.
Best wishes
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