§ Mr. Gareth Wardellasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish in the Official Report for the latest year for which information is available, for each right hon. and hon. Member, the arithmetic mean in days that his Department took to reply to letters.
§ Mr. Douglas HurdMy Department received over 29,000 letters in 1985 for ministerial reply, the great majority of them from right hon. and hon. Members. To calculate the average time taken to handle correspondence for each right hon. and hon. Member would involve disproportionate expense.
A mean figure for the Department as a whole is of only limited value because of the wide range of cases. For the second half of 1985 it was 54 days, reflecting the fact that in a significant proportion of immigration cases final replies are not sent for a number of months while inquiries are being pursued or while an appeal is outstanding. Of the final replies sent in the second half of 1985, 34 per cent. went within a month of the arrival of the initial letter and a further 37 per cent. within two months.