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Update: Some more examples of Mr Pickles's written questions have been added, to give a fuller flavour.
Eric Pickles, Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary and MP for Brentwood & Ongar, has come top of a league table. He was followed closely by Mark Hoban, MP for Fareham and a Shadow Treasury Minister. In 2007-08 Mr Pickles asked 2,190 written questions. Mr Hoban asked 2,097.
This story comes courtesy of the Yeovil Express, as local Lib Dem MP David Laws came a distant third.
Written questions certainly tie up civil servants and cost money. But these MPs are assiduous, and should therefore be congratulated for their efforts. Admittedly this is just one measure, but they are clearly working very hard.
The following written question represents one of Mr Pickles's greatest hits. When John Prescott left his grace and favour Whitehall pad, he left a hell of a mess:
"To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 6 February 2008, Official Report, columns 1158-9W, on Admiralty House, (1) what minor works were undertaken; [189572]
(2) what the cost was to the public purse of the minor works. [189588]
Meg Munn: In line with normal procedure a one-off deep clean of the property was undertaken at change over of tenants. This included cleaning of lights, curtains, nets and windows, at a cost of £3,319.67, including value added tax (VAT).
A pelmet, tracking and curtains for one window was supplied and installed at a cost of £1,030.16, including VAT.
Two bedrooms, an adjacent corridor and one bathroom were repainted and a washer dryer, a tumble dryer, fridge freezer and mixer taps were supplied and installed. The cost of these works and equipment was £9,322.92, including VAT."
Mr Pickles exposed the fact that flytippers - who dump rubbish and run - are not being held to account.
"To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many prosecutions were (a) undertaken and (b) successful in relation to fly-tipping incidents in 2006-07 in (i) absolute terms and (ii) as a percentage of the total number of fly-tipping incidents. [176541]
Joan Ruddock: Prosecution data are taken from Flycapture, the national fly-tipping database. In 2006-07, local authorities and the Environment Agency submitted the data in the following table.
Prosecutions figures are only cases taken through the court system and do not include wider enforcement action.
In 2006-07, local authorities recorded an additional 378,974 enforcement actions, consisting of warning letters, statutory notices, fixed penalty notices, duty of care inspections, vehicle seizures and formal cautions. Excluding Liverpool city council, this figure was 172,042.
|
Local authorities |
Environment Agency |
Total incidents |
2,633,518 |
982 |
Total incidents (excluding Liverpool city council) |
1,316,209 |
n/a |
Total prosecutions undertaken |
1,371 |
161 |
Successful prosecutions |
1,289 |
152 |
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Total prosecutions as percentage of total incidents |
0.05 |
16.4 |
Total prosecutions as percentage of total (excluding Liverpool city council) |
0.1 |
n/a |
Successful prosecutions as percentage of total incidents |
0.05 |
15.5 |
Successful prosecutions as percentage of total incidents (excluding Liverpool city council) |
0.1 |
n/a |
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