Correspondence (Hansard, 19 December 1990)

§ Mr. Renton

With the approval of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, the report of the efficiency scrutiny on ministerial correspondence is being made available to Members of Parliament and others today. Copies may be obtained from the Vote Office.

An efficiency scrutiny was set up in July to review the methods and costs of handling ministerial correspondence, to identify good methods of operation and to make recommendations for adoption by all Departments. In carrying out it s work, the scrutiny team sought the views of Members of Parliament, Ministers and officials in Departments and members of the public.

The task of Government Departments in dealing with correspondence is a very substantial one. Ministers respond to nearly 250,000 letters a year from Members of Parliament, and many more letters from the public receive official replies. The nature and volume of correspondence varies a great deal from Department to Department. Some have a heavy case load of letters which require detailed investigation of a constituent's case before a reply can be sent. A topical issue can stimulate with little warning huge influxes of letters with which Departments do not have the resources to deal and these add to the work load of Ministers and civil servants who are already busy preparing or implementing a policy. The scrutiny estimates that the cost of dealing with ministerial correspondence is of the order of £17.5 million per annum.

Because Departments differ both in their organisation and in the nature and volume of their correspondence, the scrutiny does not recommend a single formula for dealing with letters, nor does it propose that uniform targets should be set, independently of the nature of each Departments' work, for the time taken to reply. The recommendations are essentially a menu of good practice, on which Departments will draw according to their particular circumstances. On this basis, the Government accept the report, which Departments will now consider with the aim of further improving their service to Members and their constituents, while making efficient use of available resources and providing better value for money.

While recognising that Members of Parliament always have, and retain, the right of approaching Ministers directly, the report recommends that one important way of achieving a more efficient service is through greater 174W decentralisation of correspondence on operational matters to agency chief executives and local offices, who have delegated responsibility for particular areas of work and can deal with Members' inquiries on day-to-day matters quickly and efficiently. The Government accept the recommendation that Members need better information on contact points, and proposes to extend future editions of the "List of Ministerial Responsibilities" to include agency chief executives and other key addresses.

Other recommendations are designed to improve the way in which Departments manage correspondence and monitor their performance. They encourage more effective use of targets, and aim to increase Departments' awareness of the costs in dealing with correspondence, cutting out such factors as multiple handling and unnecessary retyping which add to costs and delay without improving the quality of replies. A need for more effective use of information technology is also identified. The report recommends that Departments consider making greater use of briefing notes for Members of Parliament to use in response to correspondence campaigns, and on other occasions when a large volume of letters is received on a single subject.

Each Department will produce within three months an action plan for responding to the report.