§ Mr. SandersTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment which of his Department's agencies have procedures to identify persistent inquirers for information. [53953]
§ Mr. Andrew SmithResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its Chief Executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
819WLetter from Leigh Lewis to Mr. Adrian Sanders, dated 31 July 1998:
The Employment Service is the only Executive Agency of the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) and the Secretary of State has asked me to reply direct to your question about which of his Department's agencies have procedures to identify persistent enquiries for information. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.The Employment Service has no formal procedure to identify persistent enquiries for information. Like the DfEE, we handle all requests for information in line with the requirements of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information: second edition (1997), and the 6 Whitehall Standards.Our Regions and Head Office Divisions can forward to our Head Office Secretariat details of anyone who appears to be repeatedly dissatisfied with the way in which their enquiries have been handled. In these cases our Head Office Secretariat will generally deal with all further enquiries from the individual concerned.I hope this is helpful.