§ Mr. EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 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. [37448]
§ Angela EagleThe available information on public correspondence relates solely to volumes, the number, and proportion of replies sent within the 20 working day target. The information is not held in such a way as to provide the more detailed breakdown requested, and has been collected only since 1999. It does not currently include information on public correspondence received by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.
Table A gives the information available for public correspondence:
523W
Table A: Letters received from the public through 1999 to 2001 Volume of letters received Performance—percentage answered within 20 working days 1999 26,616 57 2000 34,471 71 2001 35,549 76 The following tables give the information requested for MPs' correspondence. Information on letters on immigration and nationality matters, which make up roughly half the postbag, is set out in table C. Non-immigration and nationality correspondence is set out in table B.
Table B: Letters received from MPs through 1997 to 20011 Number of replies sent Average response time in working days Performance—percentage of replies taking more than: One calendar month Three calendar months 1997 8,517 33 56 4 1998 11,954 24 47 6 1999 11,471 17 14 2 2000 11,206 19 18 2 2001 8,341 22 25 2 1 Non-immigration and nationality correspondence
Table C: Letters received from MPs through 1997 to 20011 Number of replies sent Average response time in working days Performance—percentage of replies taking more than: One calendar month Three calendar months 1997 7,423 32 64 5 1998 8,167 34 53 10 1999 7,501 40 75 13 2000 9,596 51 67 24 2001 8,954 43 60 16 1 Immigration and nationality matters The Home Department receives large amounts of correspondence from hon. Members, right hon. Friends, hon. Friends and members of the public. We aim to send a substantive reply to all letters as soon as possible. I am determined to achieve a high level of performance in dealing quickly with correspondence and to deliver a greater standard of service to all Members of Parliament and the public.
We are working with our information technology partners to develop a long term strategy for handling correspondence, e-mails and telephone inquires. In the short term we are implementing a number of organisational and process changes to bring about improvements in the quality and timeliness of replies. I am monitoring the situation closely and am committed to further improvements.