§ Mr. SternTo ask the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, representing the House of Commons Commission, if he will highlight, in the 1995–96 and subsequent reports of the Commission, in how many cases claims submitted by the hon. Members to the Fees Office are delayed for more than 50 per cent. of the average number of days for the year claimed. [40275]
§ Mr. BeithAt present such statistics are not collected. A monitoring exercise such as the one described by the hon. Gentleman could be implemented only at disproportionate cost and with a loss of effective processing time which would lead to additional delays.
§ Mr. SternTo ask the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, representing the House of Commons Commission, what steps he is taking to restore the average delay in payment of claims submitted by hon. Members to the Fees Office to the levels achieved in 1993–94. [40274]
573W
§ Mr. BeithThe average delay in payment fluctuates with the number of claims received and available resources. The current turnaround of claims is better than the level recorded in the Commission's annual report for 1993–94 and therefore restoration measures are not required.