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{
    "id": 1227854,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1227854/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 22,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Members, as you are aware, on Thursday, 9th March 2023, the House adopted the Report of the Procedure and House Rules Committee and passed amendments to the Standing Orders on the manner of processing Questions. The passage of the amendments to the Standing Orders clears the way for Cabinet Secretaries to appear in the House to respond to Questions and to provide Reports to the House pursuant to the general investigatory mandate of the House and the requirements of Articles 153(2) and 153(4)(b) of the Constitution. The House also resolved that the amendments shall take effect from today, Thursday, 23rd March 2023. In this regard, I wish to guide the House on the new procedure in which Questions shall be dispensed with. As is the practice, a Member will be required to deliver a signed copy of the proposed Question to the Clerk, who shall process it in line with the provisions of the Standing Orders before the final version is submitted to my office for approval. Thereafter, the Clerk shall transmit the approved Questions to the relevant Ministries for response by the respective Cabinet Secretaries. With regard to the manner in which Cabinet Secretaries shall respond to Questions, the Leader of the Majority Party shall inform the House of the date, time, and order in which Cabinet Secretaries shall appear to reply to Questions and provide Reports to the House. In so doing, the Leader of the Majority party shall take into consideration the urgency of each Question. To this end, on a regular basis, the Clerk shall prepare and publish on the parliamentary website a tentative list of Cabinet Secretaries scheduled to reply to Questions and provide reports to the House on the advice of the Leader of the Majority Party. A Cabinet Secretary shall provide both physical and electronic copies of the reply to a question, at least one day before the said appearance. Once Questions are scheduled to be responded to, a Member shall ask his or her Question on the day it is scheduled on the Order Paper. Questions shall be dispensed with in the sequence they appear in the Schedule of Questions to be appended to the Order Paper."
}