§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many formal notices her Department has received in the last year from the parliamentary ombudsman expressing an intention to carry out an investigation; and in respect of each notice how long it took to respond. [18770]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 27 November 2001]: The Department has received two formal inquiries from the ombudsman in the last year (ie from 23 November 2000). In the first case, a full response was sent 26 days from the date of the inquiry, and in the second case 35 days from the date of the inquiry.