History. Three of the ten latest reports by such committees got a reply by the deadline. Four replies came late, two have not come, and one is not exactly dated.
Hunch. The reply falls due two days before Christmas, and the government has said nothing yet on when it will come.
The reply market resolves YES if the government's reply is dated, or recorded by Parliament as received, no later than 23 December 2026, and a reply that shows only a month is judged by the date Parliament records it. A reply that appears by 31 January 2027 with such a date still counts, with Parliament's committee page for report HC 518 and GOV.UK as sources and BBC News and The Guardian as backups.
We looked for cases where a committee of MPs, chaired by an opposition MP but with most members from the governing party, sent the government a report with demands that needed a written reply. We took the ten latest such reports, from June and July 2026. Five came from the Public Accounts Committee, which checks how public money is spent.