§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 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.
§ Sir John Cope[holding answer 17 December 1993]; Letters answered by Treasury Ministers are generally acknowledged on receipt. Last year, 78 per cent. of such letters handled within central Treasury received a substantive reply within 15 working days. Statistics are not available on correspondence answered by officials in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Departments.