§ Mr. Staintonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the volume of telephone and other traffic handled by the Immigration and Nationality Department at Croydon, and by what rate this has grown; what is the total staffing trend; and what studies have been undertaken to diminish the workload and costs by the issue of better publications and the establishment of regional offices with staff dispersal and operating economies.
§ Mr. Alexander W. LyonIn 1974 there were 196,818 telephone calls, 917,530 items of correspondence, and 174,560 personal callers. These figures were respectively 10 per cent. and 15 per cent. higher and 6 per cent. lower than those for the previous year. The staff available for dealing with this traffic increased40W in the same period by approximately 7 per cent.
Leaflets are issued to passengers at ports setting out the circumstances in which it is appropriate to write to the Immigration and Nationality Department, as opposed to calling in person or telephoning.
The possibility of establshing one or more regional offices of the Immigration and Nationality Department is being pursued, but a very large proportion of the business arises in London and the South East and must be dealt with at Croydon.