The United Bermuda Party is overwhelming civil servants with parliamentary questions, Premier Ewart Brown complained this week.

He told the House of Assembly during a presentation on the Department of Statistics that if its response times had slowed down it could be because "civil servants are being bombarded with questions from the Opposition day in, day out.

"'Where do you go? How much did you spend? Did you put extra mayonnaise on your sandwich? Did you have a Coke?' They [civil servants] are busy providing the answers."

UBP members have significantly stepped up the number of parliamentary questions submitted in recent months. Shernette Wolffe, clerk to the Legislature, told The Royal Gazette: "We've been inundated."

A UBP spokesman said: "The party's MPs have been more active in their use of parliamentary questions because they are one of the few tools available to find out just what is going on inside government.

"It is a useful tool we will continue to use because it helps shed light on matters that warrant public scrutiny."

Opposition queries in the House and the Senate have led to disclosures including the amount Government spends on consultants, how many tourists attend events such as Bermuda Music Festival, Dr. Brown's overseas travel expenses and the number of seniors enrolled in the FutureCare health insurance scheme.

John Barritt, the UBP's spokesman on legislative and public administrative reform, said: "I honestly thought the Premier must be joking. The right to ask parliamentary questions isn't utilised even half as much as it could be and that's no joke."

Shadow Attorney General Trevor Moniz said he recently submitted a query on the number of work permits because he couldn't get the answer any other way.

"This information is imperative to have a sensible debate on the Budget," he said. "I've called the Department of Statistics, who have said they can provide figures in April — after the Budget will be over. This is ridiculous — where are the figures?"

Mr. Moniz claimed: "We are being deliberately stonewalled on a lot of the information we are asking for because they don't want it to come out during the Budget."

The Rules of the House of Assembly allow any MP to put questions to Cabinet Ministers on their responsibilities; the queries must be submitted nine days in advance of when an answer is required.

There is no limit on the number of written answers that can be sought but MPs can only ask for three oral answers during any one sitting of the House.

Opposition MPs have asked 25 sets of three questions — 75 queries in total — since the current parliamentary session began in November.

Senators can also pose queries to Ministers relating to public affairs or government departments and must ask them six days before they need the answer. They are allowed three per sitting but can ask two supplementary questions when seeking oral responses.

There have been nine sets of three parliamentary questions — 27 in total — tabled so far in the Senate's 2009/10 session.

This newspaper's A Right To Know: Giving People Power campaign calls for a freedom of information law which includes a comprehensive publication scheme for public bodies to ensure much more information is made available to taxpayers as a matter of course. Draft FOI legislation is due to be tabled in the House before the summer.