HC Deb 22 July 1998 vol 316 cc543-4W
Mr. Ian Bruce

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans his Department has to correspond electronically with(a) hon. Members and (b) members of the public. [49806]

Mr. Straw

[holding answer 13 July 1998]: The Department currently has only a limited facility for the handling of correspondence from hon. Members and members of the public on stand-alone work stations. There is a limited e-mail facility on the Department's main Information Technology Network.

The Department is putting plans in place to connect selected parts of the office to the Government Secure Internet (GSI) at the end of 1998, followed by full interconnection between the core network and the GSI in the first half of 1999. That will enable a full e-mail between the office, Members of both Houses and members of the public.

Mr. Donohoe

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many letters per day his office receives; how many staff are employed to answer these; what targets are set in respect of such letters; and what is the current performance against targets. [50680]

Mr. Straw

On the targets, performance and volume of letters I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to him by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 20 July 1998,Official Report, column 363.

It is not possible to say how many staff are involved in answering correspondence in my Department because it is part of the normal duties of a large number of them.

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