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House of Representatives                                Ch 15                                                 p 554

Length of answers

The Speaker has no specific power under the standing orders to require a Minister to conclude an answer on the grounds of its length and in the past has only exercised persuasion. ¹ In exerting its influence the Chair has emphasised the need for questions and answers to be brief if maximum benefit is to be derived from the limited time allocated to questions. Ministers have often been advised that, should a question require a lengthy response, the proper procedure is for the Minister to state that fact and to seek leave to make a statement after Question Time. ² While the Speaker may urge a Minister to conclude his or her answer on the ground of its length, Speakers have taken the view that the Chair has no power to require that it be followed. From the early 1980s the length of Ministers’ answers at Question Time increased significantly, the increase being directly responsible for the decline in the number of questions it was possible to ask in the time available. This situation gave rise to considerable dissatisfaction among Members, at one stage to a point where opposition Members adopted an unofficial practice of calling a quorum later in the day for each occasion a Minister’s reply in Question Time had exceeded five minutes. ³ Motions have been moved that a Minister giving a lengthy answer be no longer heard. ⁴ The Speaker has observed that it is not reasonable for a Member to expect a short answer when his or her question has contained a lengthy preamble. ⁵

A number of proposals have been advanced over the years to control the length of answers, three minutes being the usual time limit envisaged. ⁶ However, when Procedure Committees have considered the subject in recent years they have perceived a need for flexibility in the answering of questions and concluded that the setting of time limits on answers was not the most effective way of dealing with the problem. They have recommended instead that there be a set minimum number of questions answered each Question Time ⁷ ( see p. 530).

H.R. Deb. (25.10.78) 2259.

H.R. Deb. (19.8.76) 365.

H.R. Deb. (23.9.86) 1274-5.

(Negatived on division) VP 1985-87/1558, H.R. Deb. (26.3.87) 1596; VP 1993-94/1638-9, H.R. Deb. (6.12.94) 4014; 

VP 1998-2001/830.

H.R. Deb. (29.6.2000) 18718.

H.R. Deb. (25.2.82) 596; NP 32 (19.10.83) 1442-3.

PP 354 (1986) 41; PP 194 (1993) 24-25. No formal action was taken on these recommendations, although Governments have at times set their own unofficial targets for numbers of questions.