§ Mr. MaudeTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what is the(a) target and (b) average length of time for his Department to answer letters from the public; and what proportion of letters are answered within the target period. [28922]
§ Mr. Chris Smith[holding answer 10 February 1998]: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has a target of 18 working days to answer letters from members of the public. The average length of time the Department takes to answer this type of correspondence is 16.65 days. The proportion of letters which are answered within the target period is 70.1 per cent.