Whitehall departments were inundated with a near-record number of written questions from Members of Parliament and peers last year, with the total figure almost doubling and senior government sources pointing the finger at the use of artificial intelligence by MPs.
A Dramatic Surge in Parliamentary Scrutiny
Exclusive analysis reveals that the number of Written Parliamentary Questions (WPQs) submitted in 2025 rocketed to 90,331, a dramatic increase from the 49,125 tabled in 2024. The 2024 figure was itself close to the average for the preceding decade, making last year's surge particularly stark. The deluge has sparked accusations that MPs are diverting vital civil service resources and wasting public money.
The burden was not evenly spread across government. Key departments faced unprecedented volumes of queries. The Department for Health and Social Care saw questions rise by 97%, while the Home Office dealt with a 92% increase. The Department for Education also faced a 97% rise, and the housing department was hit hardest with a staggering 101% increase in written questions.
The AI Question and Defiant MPs
Following the general election, submissions from certain individual MPs exploded in the second half of 2025, increasing ten or twenty-fold compared to the same period in 2024. Just ten MPs were responsible for a fifth of all Commons WPQs in that latter half of the year.
Notable examples include Liberal Democrat MP Al Pinkerton, whose usage soared more than twenty-fold from 36 to 721 questions. Independent MP James McMurdock had 342 questions tabled in his name on a single day, 2 January, covering topics from Palestine funding to road conditions.
While all MPs approached strongly denied that their questions were time-wasting or against the public interest, and none admitted to using AI, senior government sources launched an extraordinary attack. One senior source suggested the obscure and generic nature of many questions pointed to automated generation.
"When we look at the increase in WPQs from some MPs, the random variety of subjects they're asking about, and the lack of any apparent rationale behind their questions, we ask ourselves: how would this look any different if all their WPQs were being generated by AI? And the truth is it wouldn't," the source stated.
Civil Service Strain and the Call for Better Answers
Multiple government sources believe they are witnessing increased use of AI tools to generate questions, hypothesising that an MP might ask a chatbot for ten questions on a topic or to bulk-generate queries on government performance.
However, Conservative MP for Huntingdon, Ben Obese-Jecty, who increased his own submissions ten-fold from 150 to 1,683 in the comparative periods, vehemently denied using AI. He showed a running list on his phone where he notes down topics, arguing that poor initial answers from the government force MPs to ask more.
"My message to those in government who are complaining about the volume of questions is: answer them properly, ensure that we can hold the government to account and maybe the number of questions that you have to suffer responding to will reduce," he told Sky News.
The strain on the civil service is significant. A Whitehall source warned that important teams are now spending half their time dealing with WPQs, diverting effort from critical work like removing unsafe concrete from schools or reducing cancer waiting times. MPs are currently allowed to submit up to 20 written questions electronically per day, a rule under review by the Commons Procedure Committee.
The source issued a stark warning: "If the House wants to remove the 20-per-day limit, while simultaneously allowing members to use AI to write their questions, that is a recipe for chaos."
