Written questions

At council meetings, members have the opportunity to ask questions of the Cabinet Members. These can range from the type of question that 'tries to catch them out' to the slightly fawning question from a member of the same party, who will ask how well such-and-such a project has done when they already know it has done well, giving the Cabinet Member the chance to say how well the administration is doing etc. It happens at Prime Minister's Questions and it happens at council meetings up and down the land.

It's generally assumed that Cabinet Members should be able to answer a variety of questions relating to their brief, and (within reason) opposition councillors will try to put them on the spot, holding the administration to account for their actions and policies. One thing it is considered bad form to ask, however, is a question that would require a figure or set of figures as an answer, which the Cabinet Member could not reasonably be expected to know off the top of their head. For this kind of question we generally submit written questions to the Cabinet Members in advance. A written question is a useful opportunity to gain information about something, and at the council meeting we then have the chance to ask one supplementary verbal question per written question if we wish to, to clarify the written answer.

Here is a link to the latest set of written questions and answers - some interesting responses.