Welsh Tories: Dispute Labour claims over cost of questions

The leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the national assembly has accused Labour of exaggerating the cost of answering a series of questions put to its ministers.

Nick Bourne says he only received the briefest of replies to his questions because Labour had claimed they cost around £167 each to answer.

Labour said Bourne had run up a total bill of £22,000, but the Tory AM strongly disputes this figure.

He claims that many of the questions he tabled follow specific requests for information from the Conservative assembly leader's constituents.

In one instance, Bourne tabled 23 specific questions about job creation initiatives in individual towns across his mid and west Wales constituency.

But Labour's economic development minister Andrew Davies responded with one two-line reply to all 23 questions which read:

"My policy is to stimulate employment in all parts of Wales. Since 1999 total employment in Wales has risen by 127,000 (10 per cent)."

In total, Bourne has tabled 135 questions on specific issues, including the future of European structural funding for Wales post-2006, the shortage of care home beds, and the safety of wind turbines.

But speaking out on Wednesday, he said: "I make no apology for challenging Rhodri Morgan and his colleagues about issues of concern to my constituents. That is what I was elected to do."

And he said it was "absolutely preposterous" to suggest his questions cost £167 to answer.

"It is somewhat rich of the Labour Party to criticise me for asking questions when their own members perform so poorly time after time," Bourne went on.

"Not only does Labour seem to have a problem with people asking questions, they seem to have a problem answering them too."