Written ministerial statements explained

What a written statement is

UK Parliament says government ministers can make written statements to Parliament as well as oral ones ¹. Oral statements usually cover major incidents, policies and actions ¹. Written statements are normally used to put the government's day-to-day business on the official record ¹.

Ministers and a small number of other members of the two Houses can make a written statement to one or both Houses ².

• Detailed information and statistics ¹
• Reports published by government agencies ¹
• Findings of reviews and inquiries, and the government's response ¹
• Financial and statistical information ¹
• Procurement issues ¹
• Procedure and policy initiatives of government departments ¹

How the system started

Before 2002 the government mainly made such statements through written answers ¹. A backbench MP tabled a question drafted by the department, and the minister answered it ¹. UK Parliament says the need for these arranged or planted questions was removed in October 2002, when the Commons introduced a separate system ¹. The House of Lords followed in January 2004 ¹.

Where statements are published

Each statement appears online shortly after it is received in Parliament ¹. Daily lists appear in the Order Paper, and forthcoming statements are recorded in Future Business ¹. The text is then reproduced in the next Daily Report and in Hansard for the relevant House ¹.

Every statement carries a WSID, a Written Statement Identifying Number assigned per parliamentary session ². Statements made before 17 November 2014 were published only in Hansard, so older records sit in the Hansard archive and not in the statements database ².

What the Ministerial Code requires

The Ministerial Code, in the version updated on 29 June 2026, says the most important announcements of government policy should be made in the first instance in Parliament when Parliament is in session ³. It asks ministers to provide clear titles to both oral and written statements wherever possible ³.

The Code says it is of paramount importance that ministers give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity ³. The statements database keeps each written statement under its own identifier ².

How Australia's Senate handles ministerial statements

Practice differs between parliaments. A Senate Clerk's Office paper from October 2015 said ministerial statements had not been formally recognised in the Senate standing orders as part of the routine of business ⁴. They appear informally on the Order of Business, known as the Red, every afternoon before business resumes ⁴.

Oral statements are made by leave, and debate on them is by leave as well ⁴. The paper noted that the standing orders give ministers a right to table documents and that some ministerial statements had been tabled with documents handed in ⁴. It set out options that included creating a right for senators to move a motion to take note of a ministerial statement without notice ⁴.