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Parliamentary questions: members ask, ministers answer
Any Knesset member can ask a minister an official question, and the minister must answer or announce a refusal. This is one of the Knesset’s main tools for overseeing the government.
The Knesset member drafts a short question to a particular minister and submits it to the Speaker. Up to 30 ordinary questions may be submitted in each parliamentary session.
All steps in text
- The Knesset member drafts a short question to a particular minister and submits it to the Speaker. Up to 30 ordinary questions may be submitted in each parliamentary session.
- Ordinary: the answer is given in the plenum. Urgent: the Speaker has deemed it urgent, and the answer is given that same week. Direct: the answer is sent in writing to the member who asked.
- Ministers have 21 days to answer ordinary or direct questions or announce a refusal. Recess days do not count for ordinary questions.
- The minister answers from the podium and the response is recorded. Knesset data shows submission and answer dates.
- If the deadline has passed, the Knesset member may request that the question be treated as urgent; the answer is then given on the upcoming Wednesday.