§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many and what proportion of letters received by his Department between 20 June and 20 July were replied to(a) in under 15, (b) in under 20, (c) in under 30, (d) in under 40 and (e) in over 40 working days. [18592]
§ Mr. LeslieInformation on the volume of correspondence from Members of Parliament, received by agency chief executives and Departments and agencies, and performance in handling them, is published annually by the Cabinet Office. The most recent report, covering the year 2000 was announced by the then Minister for the Cabinet Office on 6 April 2001,Official Report, column 325W.
Within the period 20 June and 20 July 2001 the Cabinet Office received 54 letters from hon. and right hon. Members. Out of these, 20 letters were transferred to other Government Departments or required no response. Of the remaining 34 letters left for the Cabinet Office to reply, (a) 27 (80 per cent.) were replied to within the 15 working day target, (b) a further five (94 per cent.) letters were replied to within 20 working days and (c) the remaining two (100 per cent.) letters were replied to within 30 working days. For (d) and (e) the Cabinet Office have a 100 per cent. success rate as all letters were replied to within 30 working days.
Information on the volume of other correspondence, including letters from members of the public was published as part of the six service standards for central Government. The report, covering the financial year 2000, is referred to in my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon, Central (Geraint Davies) on 19 July 2001, Official Report, column 454–56W, and a copy is available in the Libraries of the House. These types of correspondence are not collected in the format requested and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many letters his Department received from hon. and right hon. Members between 20 June and 20 July. [18574]
§ Mr. LeslieInformation on the volume of correspondence from Members of Parliament received by ministerial agency chief executives, and Departments and agencies, and performance in handling them, is published annually by the Cabinet Office. The most recent report, covering 2000, was announced by the then Minister for the Cabinet Office on 6 April 2001,Official Report, column 325W. Between 20 June and 20 July the Cabinet Office received 54 letters from right hon. and hon. Members: to the Department replied to 80 per cent. within the 15 working day target.