§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health 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. [50688]
§ Ms JowellCurrently 11 members of staff are employed solely to deal with correspondence addressed to Ministers, although others provide draft replies as part of their normal duties. With regard to the volume of correspondence received and targets met in respect of that correspondence, I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary on 20 July 1998,Official Record, column 363.