§ Mr. MullinTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what was the average time his Department took to respond to a letter from an hon. Member before the establishment of the Courts Agency; and what is the average time taken by the agency to respond to a letter from an hon. Member in the first three months of its operation. [33166]
Mr. John M. TaylorThe information requested in the first part of the question could not be provided without disproportionate cost. However I refer the hon. Member to theOfficial Report for 18 April 1995, column 22 in which the Under-Secretary of State at the Office of Public Service and Science, replying to a question from the hon. Member for Chorley (Mr. Dover) said that in 1994, my Department replied to 83 per cent. of correspondence from right hon. and hon. Members within its 20 working day target. The second part of the question, concerning the average time taken by the Court Service to respond to a letter from an hon. Member, concerns a specific operational question upon which the chief executive of the court service is best placed to reply. I have accordingly asked him to do so.
Letter from Michael Huebner to Mr. Chris Mullin, dated 13 July 1995:
RESPONSES TO MP'S CORRESPONDENCE
The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, has asked me to reply to the above Question concerning the time taken to reply to correspondence from Members of Parliament.From the latest information available I am able to let you know that the average time taken to reply to a letter from a Member of Parliament was 22 days. I understand that a separate response is being provided by the Parliamentary Secretary about correspondence dealt with by his office.