§ Sir Geoffrey Finsbergasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department 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. BrittanInformation in the precise form requested is not available. However, I estimate that on 24 April 1984 about 1,700 letters from hon. Members had been with my Department for four weeks without substantive reply. Of these about 950 had been received eight or more weeks earlier, and of these 580 or more had been received 12 or more weeks earlier. Replies to many of these letters were awaiting the results of inquiries from third parties.