§ Mr. WinnickTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on his Department's current practice regarding replies sent to hon. Members of the House; under what circumstances replies are sent by officials; how it is decided whether a reply concerning constituency cases is sent by a Minister or an official; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. GoodladOur present practice is for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to reply to letters from right hon. Members and for other Ministers to reply to hon. Members.
The exception is correspondence on visa and immigration issues dealt with by officials of the migration and visa correspondence unit. They seek to reply to all inquiries within three weeks and achieve this target in 84 per cent. of all cases. The services which the unit offers are explained in a booklet sent to all Members last year. It has been revised and will be reissued this week. The unit replies to 94 per cent. of letters received from hon. Members. Ministers reply in the remaining 6 per cent. of cases.
457W