Legislate to compel Ministers to answer direct questions at the Despatch Box

Background

Legislate so that Ministers who are asked questions in Parliament must either answer direct questions or acknowledge that they will not, and explain why they refuse to do so.

Additional details

The effectiveness of questions would be greatly enhanced if ministers were required to answer them. Allowing the minister to refuse to answer while requiring an explanation allows for issues such as national security or ongoing police investigations to be explained. For example, according to a simple scan of Hansard, in the last three months’ PMQs, the Prime Minister evaded or did not answer 26 of 43 substantive direct exchanges from the Leader of the Opposition. This is Parliament at its worst!