§ John BarrettTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to her answer of 11 March 2002,Official Report, column 678W, on correspondence, for what reason 21 letters sent to her Department were awaiting a reply; and for how many of the 21 an acknowledgement of their correspondence has been sent to the letter-writer. [43689]
§ Ms HewittThere are several reasons why a letter may not receive an answer within my Department's target of 10 days. On this occasion I am unable to give specific reasons as I am unable to identify which letters were outstanding at the time, but all outstanding correspondence will be dealt with as quickly as possible and my Department will continue to endeavour to respond to letters within 10 days.
791W
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the target time will be in 2002–03 for(a) Ministers to reply to letters from hon. Members and (b) officials in her Department to reply to letters received directly from members of the public. [44939]
§ Ms HewittThe agreed target time for my Department to reply to hon. Members is 10 working days for the year 2002–03.
The target for letters received directly from members of the public for the year 2002–03 is 15 working days.