Ministers told not to evade MPs' questions

Ministers will no longer be able to avoid answering parliamentary questions with vague excuses under new rules forcing them to give precise reasons for refusing to reply to MPs.

In future they will have to cite a relevant excuse for failing to answer a query under the open government code. The tightening of the rules follows a highly critical report by the Public Administration Select Committee (PAC), which accused ministers of deliberately refusing to answer "tricky questions".

The committee found that ministers had pretended information requested by opposition MPs was not available to avoid answering questions. They had also tried to "evade proper scrutiny" and accountability by refusing to answer questions publicly and offering to write to MPs privately.

Yesterday, Tony Wright, chairman of the committee, said the Government's acceptance of his committee's recommendations was "a victory for Parliament". He intends to write to all MPs encouraging them to complain to the committee if they feel ministers are not open.

The Government, in its response to the PAC report on ministerial accountability, also promised to try to meet the 20-day target for answering MPs' letters.