Many MPs' questions silly - Straw

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Some MPs are asking ministers too many questions and risk "debasing" the whole system of government scrutiny, Commons leader Jack Straw has said.

He told the House of Commons Procedure Committee that Whitehall departments had received 95,000 questions during the last 200-day parliamentary session.

Mr Straw said: "Some of the questions are really silly. There's a point at which quantity affects quality."

One MP had submitted 250 in a single day, the committee heard.

'Right, not privilege'

Mr Straw said another had told him they asked a researcher to table a question.

Such behaviour was abusing what he called "a very, very important right, not a privilege, of a Member of Parliament".

If the system is abused too much, it will fall over Jack Straw

There had to be stronger paper "authentification" to prove an MP had been the author, Mr Straw added.

The system was in place to scrutinise the government, rather than for politicians to "make a point".

Mr Straw said ministers often struggled to deal with the backlog of questions, which could mean delays and lower-quality answers.

He said: "It's a fundamental right to hold ministers to account and, by God, it works.

"You try to answer them accurately and on time."

Mr Straw added: "[As foreign secretary] I was extremely anxious that there wasn't a dot or comma that wasn't accurate."

He went on: "If the system is abused too much, it will fall over."

Mr Straw also praised MPs for scrutinising Parliament more thoroughly than when he was first elected to Westminster in 1979.

In those days, some members had been "unbelievably slothful", with most only returning to their constituencies once a month and some just twice a year.

Mr Straw said: "MPs didn't do much 30 or 40 years ago. We see a golden age, but it was a slothful age."