GREAT BAY--Members of Parliament significantly increased their use of written questions during the 2025-2026 parliamentary year, while the latest annual report also reveals substantial differences in attendance among MPs at public and Central Committee meetings.
Parliament's three-year overview records 114 letters containing written questions submitted to ministers in 2025-2026, compared with 77 in 2024-2025 and 71 in 2023-2024. That represents an increase of approximately 48% in one year and 61% compared with two years ago.
The report stresses that these are letters containing questions, not a count of every individual question asked. One letter may contain several questions, may be submitted jointly by two or more MPs, or may be directed to more than one minister. The figures are therefore intended as an indicator of written parliamentary oversight activity.
MP Darryl York recorded the highest number of letters with written questions attributed to an individual MP, with 33, followed by Parliament President Sarah Wescot-Williams with 23, Egbert Doran with 18, Francisco Lacroes with 17, and Sjamira Roseburg with 12.
Ardwell Irion and Omar Ottley were each credited with seven, Lyndon Lewis with six, Veronica Jansen-Webster with three, and Dimar Labega, Raeyhon Peterson and Ludmila de Weever with one each. Viren Kotai, Franklin Meyers and Christopher Wever were recorded with zero written-question letters under this particular measure. The individual MP attribution table totals 129, reflecting the report's explanation that some submissions were made jointly.
At the faction level, the National Alliance recorded 50 letters, the highest total in Parliament, followed by the Democratic Party with 24, United People's Party with 23, URSM with 15, NOW with six and PFP with two. SAM was recorded with zero. The faction table totals 120 attributed letters, another indication that the report's different tables should not be read as identical counts of unique submissions.
The Minister of Justice received the highest number of written-question letters, with 28, followed by General Affairs with 24 and Finance with 22. TEATT received 16, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport 14, VROMI 13 and Public Health, Social Development and Labor nine. The ministry table totals 126 because, as Parliament explains, a single letter may be addressed to more than one minister.
Attendance figures also show clear differences among MPs. For public meetings, Jansen-Webster and Labega recorded the highest attendance at 95%, followed by Lacroes at 88%. Wescot-Williams and Roseburg each recorded 85%, while Irion, Lewis and Wever stood at 82%. At the lower end, Ottley recorded 60% attendance, Peterson and de Weever 72%, and Meyers and York 75%.
Central Committee attendance produced a wider spread. Jansen-Webster, Labega and Lacroes each recorded 88% attendance, followed by Wever at 85% and Wescot-Williams at 82%. Lewis and Meyers each stood at 76%. Peterson recorded the lowest Central Committee attendance at 35%, followed by Ottley at 44%, York at 50%, Kotai at 53%, Roseburg at 56% and Doran at 59%.
The permanent and ad hoc committee figures require more caution because several committees met only once, twice or a few times during the year, meaning a single absence can dramatically affect an MP's percentage.
There are also apparent inconsistencies in several committee attendance tables. In the Electoral Reform Committee table, for example, MPs recorded as present at the only meeting listed are nevertheless shown with 50% attendance.
In the TEATT Committee table, Irion is recorded as attending one of two meetings, but the percentage columns list 100% absent and 0% present. In the Public Health Committee table, Doran is marked absent from the only meeting while the percentage columns show 0% absent and 100% present. The raw attendance markings and the percentages therefore do not agree in those entries.
Taken together, pages 69 through 85 of Parliament's 2025-2026 Annual Report provide one of the clearest numerical snapshots of parliamentary activity during the year: written oversight increased sharply, the Justice portfolio drew the most written scrutiny, and attendance levels varied considerably from one MP to another. At the same time, some of the committee attendance data will require clarification if the percentages are to be used for direct comparisons of individual MPs.
