Fish and quiz: The many uses of written parliamentary questions
Over the last six years, parliament's clerks have had to vet about 40,000 written questions each year. So how are written questions used and what are the democratic benefits?
Over the last six years, Parliament's clerks have had to vet about 40,000 written questions each year.
A written question - from an opposition MP to a minister - is a commonly used tool in Parliament, but not well-known outside political circles.
They are not as familiar to the public as the more theatrical and confrontational oral question, as asked during Question Time.
Written questions exist in the shadow of their oral cousins. You can find them published on Parliament's website: both question and - when it is given - the answer alongside it.
So how are written questions used and what are the democratic benefits?
Ginny Andersen
Drilling down
Opposition MP Ginny Andersen of the Labour Party says the written question is a great tool for holding the government to account.
One of the benefits is that there is no limit as to how many questions an MP can lodge. In terms of what they are about, being factual is the key concern.
"You look for a range of different sources: it might be a report in the media; it could be a statement the minister's made; it may be something they've even said in an oral question that you'd like to drill down a bit further and get some additional information.
"It's really important that it's based on fact, and you also need to verify where you've got your source from."
It can be helpful to consider the written question as part of a set of questioning tools used by MPs to keep tabs on the Government.
"So the three main tools would be the Official Information Act and putting our question through that way; and then once you've got a pile of information from the OIA then you would look further with written parliamentary questions. And then when you've got an area you think is of high interest (in the public interest, to hold the government to account), that would be when you put up an oral parliamentary question," Andersen explains.
Browsing through the list of written questions on Parliament's website, you will see groups of questions by an MP to the same minister, a sequence of related interrogations on a common subject (such as a statement, a meeting or a policy). Is the written question format just a fishing expedition?
"It can be. You usually have a general direction that you think you're wanting to head in," Andersen says…