§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many formal notices his Department has received in the last year from the 1081W Parliamentary Ombudsman expressing an intention to carry out an investigation; and in respect of each notice how long it took to respond. [18763]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 27 November 2001]:Information on the outcome of statutory investigations which were concluded during 2000–01 are set out in the Parliamentary Ombudsman's Annual Report for 2000–01, copies of which are available in the Library of the House, or on the Parliamentary Ombudsman's website at www.ombudsman. org uk/pca/document/para01/index/htm.
Between 1 April 2001 and 31 October 2001, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office received 13 new statutory statements of complaint from the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The FCO responded to them all; in 11 cases the FCO met the agreed deadline set by the Ombudsman's office; while in the other two, the deadline was missed by one day.