THEY are as busy as bees, according to organisations that measure their output, but the sound and fury of the new intake of backbench MPs usually signify nothing.

Commons officials have noticed a pattern of new MPs popping up in obscure debates several times a day to make short points before scurrying off to their next appointments. Their quest is the mantle of Britain’s most assiduous MP.

And, when they are not making forgettable contributions to debate, they are tabling parliamentary questions with the enthusiasm of children obsessed with the “Why?” word. So keen are the MPs to be seen to be busy that they will say just about anything to notch up their hit rate on sites such as theyworkforyou.com, where even the briefest intervention is classified as a “speech”.

The preferred venue for such point-scoring is Westminster Hall, a second debating chamber initially shunned by many MPs when it began some years ago but now suddenly popular among backbenchers anxious to have their activity recorded.

A senior Commons official told The Times: “Every time you intervene they would count you down as if it was a speech, even in Westminster Hall, where there are five debates a day and virtually any debate you can get in on. A few Members have grasped this.”

Another measure of an MP’s output is the number of written questions that they put down to ministers. Commons officials blame this for a sharp increase in questions tabled since the general election.

The volume of such questions has risen 18 per cent compared with the previous financial year, and frequently tops 700 questions a day. According to government estimates, each costs an average of £138 for a minister to answer.

Another Commons insider said: “There are Members who say to their research assistants, ‘I want 50 questions to put down.’ This is simply so they don’t fall down the table on theyworkforyou.com.”

One MP riding high in the website’s tables is Philip Hollobone, who is listed as having “spoken in 168 debates” since winning the marginal seat of Kettering from Labour last May. His electors might think that they had discovered a parliamentarian with the stamina of Gladstone or Churchill. However, many of his so-called speeches were interventions of two or three sentences.

On Wednesday he notched up six “speeches”, three during adjournment debates on China, Post Office card accounts and Ascension Island. His contribution in the last was to note that a former mayoress of Kettering came from St Helena.

Mr Hollobone told The Times: “I am there to speak on behalf of my constituents. I try to do that as often as I can. As a new MP I am trying to get to know the different procedures and trying to attend and listen and, where possible, take part in as many different debates.”

Another frequent contributor in Westminster Hall is Peter Bone, the Tory who wrested from Labour the neighbouring constituency of Wellingborough last year, since when he has chalked up 109 “speeches”. One of these, also on Wednesday, ran to three short sentences in which he told fellow MPs that the sub-postmaster in Little Irchester had “the only business in the village”.

Mr Bone e-mails a monthly newsletter to constituents via www.theyworkforyou.com.

Among the prolific authors of written parliamentary questions is Mike Penning, who, since gaining Hemel Hempstead for the Conservatives last year, has asked 624 questions, which at £138 a time add up to £86,112. His most recent concerned sales of unclaimed lost property left in royal parks as far back as records allow.

Mr Penning said: “Of course I am aware of these websites and colleagues talk about them. I have no idea where I am on any list because I don’t look.

“What infuriates me is that you would expect a department and a minister to answer a direct question with a direct answer. I was surprised they don’t. You have to put down question after question after question to find out the answer to the first question.”

Another website to track voting records, www.publicwhip.org.uk, lists Britain’s “best-attending MP” as Willie Rennie, who arrived in the Commons only two weeks ago after winning the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election. As he has taken part in all 13 Commons votes since, he has a 100 per cent record.

I SAY, I SAY...

Philip Hollobone
(C, Kettering)
Majority: 3,301
Number of speeches: 168
Sample: “I can establish no connection between my constituency and Ascension Island, but a former mayoress of Kettering came from St Helena, and the island was very proud of her elevation to that post”
Westminster Hall debate on Ascension Island, Feb 15

Peter Bone
(C, Wellingborough)
Majority: 687
Number of speeches: 109
Sample: “My honourable friend is describing the exact situation in Little Irchester, a small village in my constituency. I was in the sub-post office last week; the splendid sub-postmaster is concerned about the change. His is the only business in the village”
Westminster Hall debate on Post Office card accounts, Feb 15

Mike Penning
(C, Hemel Hempstead)
Majority: 499
Number of questions: 624
Sample: “To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the (a) level and (b) source was of departmental income arising from unclaimed lost property in the royal parks in the last period for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement”
Written parliamentary question, tabled Feb 16

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