Increased frequency of written questions to Ministers

27th January 2021

Starting this week, the answers to written questions which States Members ask Ministers and other office holders will be published on a weekly basis. The change, from fortnightly to weekly, is being implemented alongside the 2021 trial of States Meetings taking place every three weeks.

Up until the end of 2020, written questions were published with the order paper for the fortnightly meetings and the answers can be found on the States Assembly website. Questions can relate to any official responsibility and must be answered within one week.

This week’s questions focused on:

Taxpayers earning in excess of £1 million per year	Full question and answer
Winter outbreak of Covid-19	Full question and answer
Attendance at Scrutiny meetings in 2019 and 2020	Full question and answer
Safety improvement programmes around island schools	Full question and answer
Ambulance callouts	Full question and answer
Inequities in health	Full question and answer

As well as written questions, Ministers will continue to be asked oral questions during States Meetings, which they receive in advance of the meetings, giving them opportunity to prepare answers. And, in addition, on a quarterly basis, each Minister is asked ‘questions without notice’ (QWON) for up to 15 minutes. The answers can all be found by listening to the video recordings of meetings available on the States Assembly YouTube channel, or in Hansard – a written record of everything that members say during question time, statements and debates in the States Assembly.

Notifications will be posted on the States Assembly Twitter and Facebook pages every time new answers are published (typically every Monday afternoon, with the exception of recess periods).

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