Beginning next Monday, written replies to questions submitted in the Dewan Rakyat will be uploaded to the Parliament's website.

This was announced by Parliament secretary Roosme Hamzah in a letter addressed to all ministries which Malaysiakini has sighted.

The letter has been confirmed by Deputy Speaker Nga Kor Ming.

"This is a manifestation of Pakatan Harapan’s commitment to parliamentary reforms and to make the August House a first-class parliament and the pride of our nation.

"The decision was made after a meeting at the Speaker’s Office and this is in line with our vision to make the government one that is based on the cardinal principle of good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability," he told Malaysiakini.

In the letter, Roosme said that a new link would be created on Parliament’s website to enable access to these replies.

“In line with transforming the Malaysian Parliament and in the age of information accessibility, the Dewan Rakyat will be creating a link for written parliamentary replies on the Parlimen Malaysia portal beginning Monday, Nov 5,” she said.

In the past, only hard copies of written parliamentary replies were available and they were only distributed to MPs.

To facilitate the new initiative, Roosme said MPs were now required to submit their answers by noon every day when the House was in session.

They also needed to ensure that their replies received prior approval from the relevant ministries.

“This is to prevent mistakes and changes to the replies once they have been uploaded to the Parlimen Malaysia portal,” she explained.

Each MP is entitled to submit 15 questions to government ministries during every parliamentary session.

Only a part of these questions will be answered orally during the 90-minute question-and-answer session held each day of the sitting.

The rest of the questions will be given written replies and all will be compiled in a booklet and given to the MPs