§ Mr. EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the average response time was for responding to departmental correspondence; what percentage of letters took longer than one month for a response; and what percentage took longer than three months for a response in each of the last five years. [37447]
§ Mr. StrawThe information requested is not available. However the Cabinet Office publishes an annual report to Parliament on the volume of Members' correspondence received by Departments, and their performance against their service target. The Foreign and Commonwealth's service target is 20 working days. The report for 2001 was published on Friday 24 May. Copies of previous reports are available in the Library of the house. Figures for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for each year are as follows:
Year Total number of Members'correspondence Percentage to in 20 working days 1997 18,553 68.5 1998 19,493 66 2000 17,141 64 2001 18,551 78.5 Records of other correspondence received by my Department are not kept centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
I apologise to the hon. Member for the unacceptable delay in answering this question.