Hon Speaker, through you to the hon Deputy President: I thank you for that reply, hon Deputy President. You replied, stating that this is actually a parliamentary responsibility and not an executive one, and that we have that escape valve of 10 working days. The escape valve is not there so that the questions can automatically be transferred. The duty to this House, where we have a constitutional responsibility, is to answer those questions within 10 days.
You referred to the question by the hon Farrow to the Minister of Transport, but none of these questions have been answered for nine months already! [Interjections.] Is it 50? Okay, 50. The point is that there are hundreds of these unanswered questions. Hon Deputy President, 789 questions submitted by members of this House remain unanswered; 613 of these have been outstanding for more than 10 working days.
I ask you, because you also have a role in this Parliament as Leader of Government Business, whether you will ensure that all parliamentary questions submitted this year will indeed be answered before the questions lapse on 13 December. If not, tell us why not and what measures you intend to institute to ensure that the 10-day-Rule will be adhered to in future. [Applause.]