§ 32. Mr. David Clarkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he is satisfied with the administrative arrangements within his Department for co-ordination in the answering of hon. Members' letters and parliamentary Questions.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerYes, Sir. But in handling some 350,000 letters a month that come into the Department over 2,000 of which come from hon. Members—and about 500 parliamentary Questions, delays and mistakes do occur. I regret that we have had to apologise to the hon. Member on two occasions for mistakes that affected him.
§ Mr. ClarkDoes the Minister realise that on one of the occasions when he apologised to me he asked me to table another parliamentary Question so that he could correct his first answer, and when I tabled that Question his answer referred me to the previous answer?
§ Mr. WalkerI give a double apology.