§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what proportion of correspondence received by(a) his Department and (b) each of his Department's agencies receives (i) an acknowledgement within five days and (ii) a substantive reply within 15 days.
§ Mr. HanleyThe Department does not maintain central records of correspondence received from members of the public, although the aim is to provide at least an initial reply within 15 working days—20 working days in the case of complaints about low flying. For letters from hon. Members, in 1993 up to the end of September, 100 per cent. received an acknowledgement within five days of receipt and 77 per cent. were answered within 15 working days.
All defence agencies aim to provide a reply within 15 working days and I understand that this is achieved in the vast majority of cases, but they are not required to maintain statistics on their performance in dealing with correspondence.