Correspondence (Hansard, 21 July 1998)

§ Mr. Ian Bruce
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans his Department has to correspond electronically with(a) hon. Members and (b) members of the public. [49845]

§ Dr. Howells
[holding answer 13 July 1998]: The Department is able to respond electronically to hon. Members although some hon. Members do not have electronic facilities. There is also some reluctance from some hon. Members to accept letters with an electronic signature. I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 17 July 1998, Official Report, column 315, concerning the variety of different methods being tested for the electronic handling of Written Parliamentary Questions.
With regard to communicating electronically with the public, there has been enormous progress. During 1997 the Department received 116,000 letters, and at least 11,000 of those were dealt with electronically. It is anticipated this will increase this year. Not only has the Department responded to inquiries electronically but it has for example, communicated electronically to consult with organisations on policy; deal with applications for work permits; handle requests for funding from the European Social fund and to liaise with Local Education Authorities.
The Department aims to be the flagship in the use of IT in the public sector and anticipates over the coming months that it will continue to expand its electronic communications facilities.

§ Mr. Donohoe
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many letters per day his office receives; how many staff are employed to answer these; what targets are set in respect of such letters; and what is the current performance against targets. [50681]

§ Dr. Howells
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by the Parliamentary Secretary, Office of Public Service on 20 July 1998,Official Report, column 363, which sets out Departments' and Agencies' performance for 1997. Performance has been monitored against the Central Government service standards and the figures will be made available to the House shortly.
In response to the question on the number of staff employed to deal with the correspondence of the Department. Indeed most staff in the Department deal with correspondence as part of their normal duties.