To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to detail (i) the reasons for the delay in responding to Written Assembly Questions; and (ii) what action is being taken to improve response times.

While we constantly strive to ensure that responses are provided in a timely fashion, we regret that this is not always possible on all occasions. We would highlight the unique nature of our responsibilities, which requires joint consideration and agreement on an appropriate response, and which adds an additional element that has a significant bearing upon the timescales required.

Our department, in common with the others, has also experienced disruption as a result of Covid-19 which has impacted upon the timelines of responses to questions because of the need to divert and dedicate staffing resources in response to this emergency.

Moving forward we are confident that recent improvements to response times for Written Assembly Questions to our office will continue as pressures relating to the Covid response abate, permitting additional staffing resources to be directed to this important area of work.