HC Deb 22 July 1976 vol 915 cc1993-4
10. Mr. Mike Thomas

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will take steps to speed up his Department's replies to Members' letters.

Mr. Roy Jenkins

The handling of all correspondence is kept under review, and letters from Members are accorded a high priority of treatment. Many of the letters which I and my colleagues receive about individual cases call for detailed inquiries, often outside the Home Office, to be made, and a full, early reply cannot then reasonably be expected. In such cases an interim reply is usually sent.

Mr. Thomas

I understand my right hon. Friend's difficulties and those of his Department in this respect. I join those who wish him well on his departure in due course to Brussels. As a parting present, however, will he see whether he can bring his Department a little higher up the league which shows the speed with which Departments reply to Members' letters? At the moment I have the feeling that his Department is at the bottom and that it takes the longest to reply.

Mr. Jenkins

It is certainly very near the bottom, and I agree with my hon. Friend to that extent. There are some good reasons for this. A lot of the inquiries we receive have to be sent out, particularly to the police, who are fairly slow in replying. Various other considerations of this sort must be taken into account.

Since hon. Members have been kind enough to make certain valedictory remarks, perhaps I may make certain valedictory comments about MPs' correspondence. It would be desirable to have faster replies and it might be desirable to have shorter replies. There is no possibility of devoting more resources in a heavily-burdened Civil Service to replying to the many letters that we receive from Members. I have the slight feeling that at present too much attention is devoted to immensely long replies which involve collecting comments from other Departments, and it might be more appropriate to give slightly less comprehensive replies rather more quickly.

Compared with some time ago, I detect an increasing tendency on the part of hon. Members on both sides when their constituents write to them asking for their views on some issues—it might be immigration or capital punishment—automatically to send the letters to the Department and to expect the Department to provide their views for them. Hon. Members have a certain responsibility to provide their own views to constituents.

Mr. Evelyn King

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that throughout my parliamentary life, and regardless of who was Home Secretary at any given time, the reputation of the Home Office was always inferior to that of any other Department on the question of dealing with correspondence? Will the right hon. Gentleman distinguish the last few weeks of his period in office by instigating a thorough inquiry as to why that is so?

Mr. Jenkins

There are certain valid reasons for that. As I have indicated, we tend to reply at too great a length, but we also have to make a great number of outside inquiries. This is a serious position and I pay attention to what the hon. Gentleman has said.