"This is wrong, but it does happen" encouragement?

The end of the Parliamentary session, and the prorogation of the House has always interested me when it comes to what appears to be its use as a tool for avoiding questions. I was therefore rather interested to read this letter from Chris Bryant to Harriet Harman about written questions and prorogation.

The letter below is essentially one which says "oh you mustn't use it to avoid answering questions, but feel free to give a standard 'we don't have the time before prorogation' answer for the entire last week of Parliament if you like".

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Other Research

No doubt some will disagree with that, but the letter has an obvious sub-text to it. Explicitly telling the departments not to use it to avoid questions and then letting them know they can essentially use it as an excuse for an entire week is an interesting juxtaposition.

It's basically tacit encouragement!