Points of Order — Written Questions—Overdue Replies and Information Provided

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I seek your guidance on a ruling that you made on 10 September that in answering written questions, members should either provide a sufficiently detailed answer to enable the member to directly locate the information or provide it in the reply to the written question. Following your ruling, questions were lodged with the Minister of Education, who was, in fact, the cause of the ruling in the first place, to enable her to answer fully questions that had not already been answered. These questions have not been answered within the 6-day time frame that Standing Order 382(4) requires, and the Minister’s office has not responded to emails asking when those answers could be expected. I would not normally raise this in the House, but because it is in direct response to your ruling, I would ask for your support in getting answers to those questions.

I will look further into the matter and come back either directly to the member or to the House itself.