§ Sir Geoffrey Finsbergasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many letters which have been with his Department for four, six, eight, 10 and over 12 weeks, respectively, as at 10 April and which were from Members of Parliament remain without substantive replies from his Department.
§ Mr. MooreThe following table sets out the number of letters from Members of Parliament with the Chancellor of the Exchequer's departments at 10 April, by the length of time they had been awaiting reply:
Number Up to 4 weeks 1,658 4 to 6 weeks 108 6 to 8 weeks 51 8 to 10 weeks 24 10 to 12 weeks and over 23 Three quarters of those letters awaiting reply for more than four weeks are on tax questions. These cases can require quite lengthy investigations by the revenue departments, including local office reports, before Ministers are in a position to make an informed reply.