§ Mr. Steenasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) why he introduced a new form of acknowledgment letter which states that as soon as time permits the matter will be brought to his attention for whatever action is needed to deal with the points raised;
(2) how many letters which state that the contents of letters sent to Members of Parliament will be brought to the Chancellor's attention as soon as time permits for whatever action is needed have been sent to Members of Parliament in the last 12 weeks; how many of these have subsequently been brought to the Chancellor's attention; and how many have attracted subsequent action;
(3) what is the administrative procedure in the Treasury which streams letters from Members of Parliament;
(4) how many administrative streams there are in the Treasury which categorise letters from Members of Parliament; what is the name of each category; and what is the turn-round period of each administrative stream;
(5) how much it costs to print cyclostyle letters which acknowledge letters from Members of Parliament and which state that the contents of such letters will be brought to the Chancellor's attention as soon as time permits.
§ Mr. HealeyI receive a very substantial amount of correspondence each 193W day from hon. Members and from members of the public. It is impossible for them all to be dealt with on the day of receipt, and the present form of acknowledgment used by my office is designed as a courtesy to correspondents to let them know as soon as possible that their letters have been safely received.
Letters from hon. Members continue to be given the same serious and prompt attention they have always received, and there has been no change in the way in which they are processed for reply. All that has happened is that my office has replaced a number of different acknowledgment cards with one standard letter, with a consequent saving.
I regret that the statistical details the hon. Member asked for would require a disproportionate effort, in terms of time and expenditure, to provide.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to attend to the letter from Mrs. L. Cheyne, 123 Bentham Drive, Liverpool, regarding the proposed taxation of war widows' pension.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonI wrote to the hon. Member on 21st July.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to attend to the letter from Mr. J. T. Trapp, Director of Liver Launderettes, Liverpool, concerning his firm's dealings with the Inland Revenue and the general level of bureaucracy.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonI wrote to the hon. Member on 21st July.
§ Mr. Steenasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to attend to the leter from Mr. Eric Pascoe, of Messrs. Bailey and Neep in Liverpool, regarding VAT on private mortgages.
§ Mr. Denzil DaviesI wrote to the hon. Member on 26th July 1976.