The first hour of every National Assembly sitting — after the formal commencement — is for members to ask Questions from ministers. During this hour, oral answers to Starred Questions are given on the floor of the Assembly. There is no Question Hour on Tuesdays. Questions not reached within the hour receive written answers laid on the Table. The questions are submitted in advance for ministers to come prepared to answer them.
Why it matters for the National Assembly proceedings?
Question Hour is the most routine — and therefore most significant — daily accountability mechanism in a parliamentary system. It requires ministers to answer for their portfolios publicly, on the floor of the House, in real time. The absence of Question Hour on Tuesdays reflects the allocation of that day to private members’ business.
What is in it for citizens?
When citizens hear that ‘ministers answered questions in the National Assembly today’, this is a reference to Question Hour. FAFEN’s parliamentary monitoring records the number of questions listed, answered, and unanswered in each Question Hour. Tracking this data over time reveals which ministries are responsive to parliamentary scrutiny and which consistently fail to produce answers within the prescribed time.
Source: Rule 69, Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007
The proceedings of the National Assembly are governed by the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007. The current rules were passed on 23 February 2007 and have since been amended 21 times, most recently on 22 October 2024.
This post is part of FAFEN’s series on parliamentary literacy. Read more of this series here
