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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.
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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…
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