To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the reasons are for the time taken to publish his Department's Quarterly Data Summary for the second quarter of 2012-13 and the third quarter of 2012-13.

The quarter 2 and quarter 3 Quarterly Data Summary (QDS) returns of all 17 Departments participating in the QDS process were delayed owing to the development of the Cabinet Office's Government Interrogating Spending Tool (GIST).

The GIST was developed in response to recommendations made in Dr Martin Read's independent report entitled ‘Practical Steps to Improve Management Information in Government'.

The GIST is an online tool that allows the public to access a breakdown of government expenditure through the GOV.UK website. It makes the process of accessing and analysing complex QDS and OSCAR data easier and quicker, and for these reasons was seen to justify a short delay in publishing QDS data.