§ Mr. Neubertasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many letters have been received by the Home Office on the subject of immigration policy and race relations since 1st May 1976 (a) from Members of Parliament and (b) direct from the public; and what has been the average length 424W of time taken to reply in full to the representations made.
§ Dr. SummerskillAn unusually large volume of correspondence on the subject of immigration policy and race relations has arisen since 1st May. In consultation with other Departments, this has had to be dealt with by parts of the office which were already under considerable pressure of work. Inevitably this has led to replies taking longer than we would normally regard as acceptable and this we regret. But we no not think it would be right to employ staff in counting the correspondence and calculating the average time taken to deal with it. This could only cause further delays.