I held a debate in Parliament on the Government's poor record on transparency and accountability.
I raised concerns that Ministers have shown a complete disregard for Parliament, the ministerial code and the Nolan principles by refusing to submit themselves to scrutiny by the Opposition, by failing to answer letters and by withholding information from Parliament without good reason.
In the debate, I expressed my frustration to the Minister that I have numerous examples of important constituent casework letters waiting for responses from Ministers which were sent 323 days, 211 days and 156 days ago to name a few. This is in addition to the letter to the Chancellor about air ambulances which I and seven other Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire MPs wrote over a year ago to which we received an unsatisfactory response only today that confirmed they will not give air ambulances any additional funding.
It is shameful that in order to get answers to our questions, MPs must resort to submitting numerous FOI requests to public bodies to get the details on the issues we are concerned about because our written questions have not been answered properly.
This comes on top of the Government failing to uphold their obligations to be fully transparent and accountable to Parliament and the public in the appointment of David Kogan as chair of the Independent Football Regulator and developing a habit of announcing policy to the media instead of to the House of Commons.
It is a privilege to be elected to represent our constituents. Highlighting the voices of the public, asking the questions that they want to see answered and offering an alternative vision are essential roles of an Opposition in a democracy. Government opaqueness is not conducive to such accountability.
These are some of the examples I raised with the Minister this week. You can read my whole speech on Hansard.
