Every day proceedings in the Lords begin with four oral questions. They are submitted in advance by members and answered by government ministers or spokespersons. They cover a wide range of subjects. After a question has received its reply from the government front bench, supplementary points are put from around the House for some five minutes, each one being answered from the front bench.
An analysis of the questions asked in the 2016-17 Session of Parliament was recently carried out by officials in the Lords. The following table shows the most frequent contributors. The shaded lines indicate front-bench spokespersons. Among backbenchers Alistair Lexden was ranked fifth.
