Inland Revenue (Hansard, 30 January 2004)

§ Mr. Bellingham
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what targets have been set for the answering of correspondence by the Inland Revenue. [151836]

§ Dawn Primarolo
The targets for post in local tax areas in 2003–04 are:

80 per cent. of post worked within 15 working days.

95 per cent. of post worked within 40 working days.

80 per cent. of post worked within 15 working days dealt with completely and correctly.

§ Mr. Bellingham
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much correspondence to the Inland Revenue at present remains unanswered after(a) three, (b) six and (c) nine months. [151837]

§ Dawn Primarolo
The Inland Revenue does not keep records on this basis. The current target for local tax areas is to work 80 per cent. of post (which includes correspondence and other items) within 15 working days and 95 per cent. of post within 40 working days.