§ Mr HodgeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what performance indicators and performance targets there are for measuring the performance of his Department in(a) answering letters from members of the public and (b) answering telephone calls from members of the public; how performance is monitored; and what are the latest figures for performance measured against the target set. [26328]
§ Sir Paul BeresfordThe Department has a target of replying to all letters from the public, including individuals, businesses and local authorities, within 15 working days of the letter being received by the department. Since April 1994, the Department has been developing procedures for monitoring performance against that target, which are overseen by the management board of the Department.
The Department has no quantitative target for the answering of telephone calls by all departmental staff and performance data are not centrally monitored. The Department's public inquiry unit has targets for several aspects of their answering of telephone calls and their performance against these targets is monitored daily and reported on annually to senior management.