Key Whitehall departments had to answer almost twice as many questions from MPs and peers in 2025 as the year before – with AI blamed for the massive rise, Sky News can reveal.
MPs have been accused of diverting resources and wasting public money after the number of Written Parliamentary Questions (WPQs) rose to 90,331, up from 49,125 in 2024, which was close to the average for the previous decade.
The Department for Health and Social Care saw a 97% increase in questions compared to the previous year.
The Home Office saw a 92% increase, the Department for Education saw a 97% increase, and the housing department saw a 101% increase.
Submissions from some MPs surged 10 or 20-fold in the second half of 2025 compared to the same period the year before, following the general election. Just 10 MPs accounted for 20% of the Commons WPQs submitted in the second half of 2025.
These included a Lib Dem MP, Al Pinkerton, whose use increased more than 20-fold from 36 to 721, and independent MP James McMurdock, who on 2 January alone saw 342 questions tabled in his name on a range of subjects from Palestine funding to road deterioration and the UK-Italy young leaders programme.
All MPs we spoke to strongly rejected any claim that their questions waste time or are not in the public interest, and no MPs admitted to using AI in their questions.
The increase was confined to pockets of the Commons, and there was no massive difference in the number of WPQs submitted by members of the House of Lords over the two periods compared.
Many MPs believe WPQs are an essential tool for extracting critical information from government departments.
Some told Sky News the growth in questions stemmed from the government’s failure to answer their first attempts, while a number of new MPs said they were learning the system.
Is AI behind the rise?
But senior government sources have launched an extraordinary attack on MPs for the growth of questions – which they believe could be time-wasting.
“Some of the WPQs we are seeing are so obscure, and others are so generic, that you’re regularly left wondering how any MP would have come up with them, and perhaps the answer is that they haven’t,” a senior source said.
“Put it this way: when we look at the increase in WPQs from some MPs, the random variety of subjects they’re asking about, and the lack of any apparent rationale behind their questions, we ask ourselves: how would this look any different if all their WPQs were being generated by AI? And the truth is it wouldn’t.”
Sky News has been told by multiple government sources they believe they are seeing the increased use of AI tools to generate written questions.
They suggest an MP with a general interest in a subject may ask an AI tool to give them 10 questions to ask the government about it, or – if they simply want to get their numbers up in a hurry – may ask AI to provide them with multiple questions asking the government about its performance across a range of different areas.
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However, one MP whose use of written questions has increased 10-fold in a year showed Sky News how he keeps a written list on his phone of every subject he wants to ask about and denied ever using AI to write them for him.
Ben Obese-Jecty, Tory MP for Huntingdon, tabled 150 questions in the second half of 2024 and 1,683 in the same period a year later. He said if Whitehall wanted to reduce the number of questions, they should give better answers the first time they are asked.
‘It’s like a chess game’
“My message to those in government who are complaining about the volume of questions is: answer them properly, ensure that we can hold the government to account and maybe the number of questions that you have to suffer responding to will reduce,” he told Sky News.
“I know that I personally don’t use AI to write questions. I have a running list on my phone and as questions come up during the day I will make a note of something that I want to ask the government to get some more clarity on it.”
Sky News challenged Mr Obese-Jecty why he asked about such a variety of topics, including the impact on the grocery industry of weight loss drugs.
“All of the questions are certainly valid, and if they weren’t valid, they wouldn’t be allowed to be tabled in the first instance,” he replied.
“A lot of those questions are [there because it’s] like a chess game, and each question is effectively an opening gambit in a back and forth where you will ask a question and then slowly drill down into a topic.”
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Civil servants ‘spending half their time’ with WPQs
Under the current rules, MPs can submit up to 20 written questions electronically each day. There is currently an inquiry by the Commons Procedure Committee into WPQs, which could change this limit.
The Whitehall source said: “People think civil service departments are these huge bureaucracies where there are endless numbers of staff waiting to churn out answers to WPQs and FOI [Freedom of Information] requests.
“But the truth is the individual units in charge of each specific area are fairly small, and too many important civil service teams are currently spending half their time dealing with WPQs.
“MPs mean well, but if they are sending hundreds of WPQs asking for the latest update from the teams responsible for removing RAAC concrete in schools, or reducing cancer screening waiting times, or responding to Hurricane Melissa, they have to understand they are diverting resources from the actual work they’re supposed to care about.
“If the House wants to remove the 20-per-day limit, while simultaneously allowing members to use AI to write their questions, that is a recipe for chaos.”
