§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the average time his Department takes in replying to an hon. Member's letter; and what is(a) the shortest time and (b) the longest time it has taken to reply in full to an hon. Member's letter in the last Session of Parliament.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthMinisterial replies despatched in September took an average of 29 working days to issue. A
Number of patients by RHA (1979–88/89) 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987–88 1988–89 Northern 368,578 393,788 395,694 376,067 409,115 420,080 433,131 441,095 462,766 461,033 Yorkshire 433,783 456,885 465,514 454,013 490,644 499,895 517,543 525,296 549,847 551,458 Trent 464,917 497,306 511,888 505,247 543,221 557,930 578,370 592,398 612,890 626,102 East Anglian 201,867 216,878 219,585 213,297 229,580 238,332 250,343 253,483 264,117 269,637 North West Thames 403,264 412,723 418,144 394,415 408,474 415,559 418,753 419,008 421,582 416,153 North East Thames 455,851 473,469 474,758 512,655 526,398 534,760 541,080 530,372 527,585 521,291 South East Thames 438,889 453,149 462,239 461,394 477,283 487,772 501,557 495,246 504,666 487,815 South West Thames 312,264 320,149 324,683 315,210 329,334 338,587 344,430 347,089 351,932 344,259 Wessex 302,772 318,509 322,017 320,939 332,378 345,528 357,311 366,421 389,492 391,376 Oxford 251,898 264,990 269,685 266,304 276,523 284,583 297,524 299,270 300,416 296,433 South Western 338,890 357,966 365,849 370,348 385,293 399,018 408,004 417,443 443,179 451,586 West Midlands 547,773 575,105 582,892 591,061 619,743 644,202 666,217 673,375 708,225 689,457 Mersey 282,629 297,465 299,349 293,928 312,615 322,138 330,990 336,944 345,652 347,893 North Western 509,049 541,776 554,967 553,727 582,667 597,756 617,628 624,678 644,540 640,548 Special health authorities 87,696 89,843 92,613 91,032 92,317 91,405 90,931 91,671 92,465 90,941 England 5,400,120 5,670,001 5,759,877 5,719,634 6,018,585 6,177,545 6,353,812 6,413,789 6,619,354 6,585,982 Source: SH3 return, 1979–86; SH3 and KP70 returns, 1988–89.