1. Straight answers, or slippery digressions? The art of the Written Answer – in numbers

    House of Lords Library: Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament

    The Written Answer is a noble parliamentary tradition, dating back almost 300 years. MPs and peers use them to hold the government to account, getting facts and figures on the record.

    But wriggling out of answering them is also a recognised Parliamentary skill – and one that, while often applied with dexterity, can impede the process of democracy.

    That’s the primary reason that, beside each Written Answer on TheyWorkForYou, we poll our users on a single point:

    “Does this answer the above question?”

    Last month marked the tenth birthday of TheyWorkForYou, and over that time, this unassuming poll has amassed more than 275,000 of these yes or no responses on a total of around 130,000 written answers.

    That’s a substantial sample for us to analyse. Running that data through a few tickertape machines and putting the results in order means that we can now see just how many written answers actually address the question in hand – and which government departments are the best and worst at giving a straight answer.

    Is the current administration more slippery?

    It seems that ministers are getting worse at returning a straightforward answer.

    In the previous government: 47% of written answers that were voted on got more ‘yes’ answers than ‘no’s from our users.

    In the current administration: That figure has dropped to 45%. Even within the current term, the figure has been falling year on year, with a 49% ‘yes’ rate in 2010 comparing to a 42% rate in 2013.

    Best and worst departments for a straight answer

    Breaking down the data by department is also eye-opening – some departments are decidedly more likely to be judged as prevaricators by TheyWorkForYou’s users.

    Accolade for ‘most improved’ goes to the Wales office, who managed an 86% ‘yes’ rate in the current government, against 48% in the last. Worst of the bunch – as perceived by TheyWorkForYou’s users – is the Department of Work and Pensions, with just 31% in this administration.

    We’ve put the full rankings below, for those of you who would like to delve deeper into these figures.

    (more…)