Letters: Cash for questions: cut out the middle man and cut out the sleaze

Sir: Imagine if government departments offered, on a commercial basis, facilities equivalent to written parliamentary questions, direct to professional lobbyists.

Imagine also if they could recover costs from lobbyists where it emerged that they had placed questions through MPs.

We would then have an end to cash-for-questions scandals, while harming no legitimate interests. The public purse would profit and some MPs might have more time for their real constituents.

PHILIP EWAN

Middlesbrough,

Cleveland