§ Mr. McFallTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many requests have been received for copies of the "Code of Practice on Access to Government Information" on the dedicated telephone line set up for that purpose; what organisations are responsible for operating the telephone inquiry and document distribution service; what required standards have been set down for timeliness of response to telephone inquiries; what is the performance of the telephone inquiry service to date; how many complaints have been received about non-delivery or late delivery of the document following a telephone request; and what has been the total cost to date of operating the service.
§ Mr. WaldegraveIn all, there have been some 440 calls to the inquiry service on 0345 223242 regarding the code of practice. In addition, my own office has received a further 120 calls. Copies of the code and a leaflet explaining its operation have been sent out in response.
IBM operates the service. Its contract with OPSS states that the service shall operate between 8 am and 8 pm daily; that 90 per cent. of calls received in a day—80 per cent. of calls received in any one hour—shall be answered within 10 seconds; and that 98 per cent. of all calls shall be answered within 20 seconds. The operators have consistently met their targets.
I am aware of only four complaints—less than 1 per cent. of requests—of late or non-delivery, and understand that these have now been dealt with to the satisfaction of those involved.
Dealing with open government inquiries was an addition to the existing service, which deals with inquiries on the 1994 charter mark scheme and the guide to the citizens charter second report, and as such incurred no start-up costs. The cost of responding to open government calls amounted by 12 May to £814.88—just under £2 per call. This figure includes the cost of posting material to callers.