MPs and Peers can, as long as they word them correctly, table almost any written Parliamentary question.
Some take this as licence to be tedious in the extreme - hence the 4,057 questions asked by Tory MP John Bercow in the last Westminster session.
Others take a more obscure approach, making inquiries which leave Ministers baffled.
Take, for example, the following question from Lord Faulkner of Worcester.
He asked the Tourism Minister, Baroness Blackstone: "What are the attendance
figures for each of the tourist attractions that are the subject of brown signs on the motorway?"
Unsurprisingly, she was unable to answer. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not chart the link between road signs and visitor numbers.
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