As to what

Hi! What does "as to what" mean and when is it used? Here's an example:   Note the word order.  The first part of the question has the same word order as in "What does this mean?".  In the second part of your question I changed your word order because this is a question, not a statement.

"The question as to what role the agency should play will be one of the key questions."

In the previous sentence, could I have said "The question in which role the agency should play will be one of the key questions"?

Thanks.
Marco

Hello Marco,

Your alternative sentence does not work.  You could say "The question regarding which/what role the agency should play will be one of the key questions."

There is an issue that they are going to discuss.  The issue is "What role should the agency play?".  This question will be one of the key questions that they will have to discuss. 

So you have to word your sentence to somewhat reflect the question that they will discuss.  This question is to be quoted almost exactly in your sentence to be able to make it clear to the reader.  So you need to say something similar to this:

The question "What role should the agency play?" will be one of the key issues. 

But you want to make this into a smooth sentence, so you take it out of the quotation marks (And therefore you must change the word order from a direct question to an indirect one  ...what role the agency should play...

And you need to put something before it to connect it together.  So you say "The question as to....."

It means "The question regarding the issue of... "  or "The question that concerns the issue of..." 

I think you can see that this sentence...

The question in "Which role should the company play?" will be one of the key issues.

is a sentence that does not make sense.  So you can see why you cannot use your other suggested sentence.

Other examples of how you can use "as to" would be:

"The question as to when we will finalize the plans is still unresolved."

"As to when I will come - I still do not have an answer for you"

"The discussion as to who will be in charge of payments is still ongoing"