" There is little opportunity for an MP to ask question inthe house of Commons because of the tightness of the Parliamentary timetable."
2006-11-07 07:35:58 · 4 answers · asked by bakhtawar t 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Government
Something must be done.
2006-11-07 07:37:59 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Serious answer, rather than the rubbish spoken by your two first respondents.
Once a month each Government department has one hour set aside at the beginning of the House of Commons day for members to ask questions (this is reduced to 30 minutes on a Wednesday where there are also 30 minutes of questions to the Prime Minister). Questions must be submitted in writing three days before the date of the question time session, but after the Minister has answered the written question the MP has the opportuniy to ask a supplementary question on the same subject.
There are also Written Questions, which are normally used for statiscal purposes, where the Minister replies in writing by placing the answer in the Table Office.
MPs can also ask questions about Business in the House of Commons for one hour every Thursday when the Leader of the House delivers a Business Statement.
The other ways of questioning Ministers are:
Statement: a Minister is expected to come to the House of Commons to make a Oral Statement on matters of importance. This is expected to be no longer than 10 minutes in length; the Opposition spokesperson then has five minutes to respond with questions, the Liberal Democrats have three minutes, and backbench MPs have the rest of the 30 or 45 minutes that the Speaker has set aside for the Statement.
Urgent Question: if a Minister has refused to make an Oral Statement to the House a MP can apply to the Speaker for an Urgent Question. If this is granted then the same procedure as for an Oral Statement is followed.
The system for asking Oral Questions (verbal) has been improved in recent years, as previously questions had to be submitted two weeks rather than three days in advance, so were often irrelevant by the time the Question Time came around.
2006-11-07 16:23:46 · answer #2 · answered by Timothy M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They still have question time,parliament is stuck in the dark ages so who ever is in power they go through the same motions.
2006-11-10 14:01:08 · answer #3 · answered by Ollie 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they used to be able to ask questions when britain was a democracy but since bushes puppy blair decided he was a dictator they are not allowed to ask questions in case they let slip the truth
2006-11-07 15:39:03 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋