HC Deb 16 April 1985 vol 77 c156W
Mr. Greenway

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many representations he has received on the limited drugs list; and what is the average length of time taken by his Department to reply to letters on this issue.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

We have received over 13,000 letters about the selected list of drugs since we announced the proposals on 8 November 1984. We are endeavouring to answer all letters as quickly as possible, but the volume of correspondence is such that some delays are occurring. I regret that some apparent discourtesy to correspondents may have occurred, but this is inevitable when organised write-in campaigns by lobbyists swell the volume of correspondence on any subject to this extent.