Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena today (April 22) announced that a new methodology will be adopted for scheduling Questions for Oral Answers in the Order Paper of Parliament.

The Speaker also informed the House that the decision was taken due to the fact that backbench Members of Parliament who have submitted questions not getting equal opportunity to raise questions as only a few parliamentarians get the opportunity to do so on every sitting day of parliament due to the current methodology in scheduling Questions for Oral Answers in the Order Paper of Parliament.

The decision was taken after special attention was paid at the Meetings of the Committee on Parliamentary Business held recently regarding the requests made by Backbench Members

The aforementioned new methodology will be effective from the first sitting day of Parliament in May 2022. The Speaker also announced the guidelines of the new methodology to be followed in incorporating questions for oral answers into the Order Paper of Parliament.

Accordingly, the Committee on Parliamentary Business has unanimously made the following guidelines after long deliberation on the matter:

1. The number of Questions for Oral Answers that are scheduled for a Sitting Day be restricted to ten (10);

2. According to the chronological order of the Questions for Oral Answers that have been submitted by Members, the first question of each Member be given priority, and on the first Sitting Day of Parliament ten (10) questions – one question from each of the first ten (10) Members whose names appear in the list – be scheduled in the Order Paper of Parliament;

3. On the second day, the questions of the next ten (10) Members whose names appear in the list, be scheduled in the Order Paper, and questions be scheduled for other sitting days also following the same procedure;

4. Giving priority, as appropriate, for the questions for which further time was sought to reply of the relevant Member of Parliament at the next Sitting day of Parliament on which the Member of Parliament gets his turn; 

5. The aforementioned new methodology will be effective from the first Sitting Day of Parliament in May 2022