HC Deb 13 February 2004 vol 418 c293W
Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how the reorganisation of the Department will improve the response time to(a) parliamentary questions and (b) ministerial correspondence. [153687]

Ms Rosie Winterton

The Department's change programme is seeking to improve the quality and timeliness of response to parliamentary questions and ministerial correspondence by centralising expertise.

Since the formation of the Department's customer service centre, there has been steady improvement during 2003 towards Whitehall standards and this is expected to continue as the centre expands to take on all departmental ministerial correspondence.