HC Deb 03 December 2001 vol 376 cc16-7W
Mr. Burns

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many letters his Department received from right hon. and hon. Members between 20 June and 20 July. [18559]

Dr. Whitehead

Information on the volume of correspondence from Members of Parliament received by Ministers, agency chief executives, 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, this Department received 839 letters from right hon. and hon. Members.

Mr. Burns

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions 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. [18579]

Dr. Whitehead

The information is not available in the form requested. The information we have is as follows:

Ministerial letters1
From MPs From others
Number of cases 839 1,178
Answered within 15 days
Number 696 1,001
Percentage 83 85

Ministerial letters1
From MPs From others
Answered within 20 days
Number 751 1,079
Percentage 90 92
Answered within 25 days
Number 784 1,118
Percentage 93 95
1 20 June to 20 July

Non-ministerial litters1,2
Number Percentage
Cases received 186,689 —
Answered within 15 days 178,661 96
1 July to September 2 This figure represents the total volume of non-ministerial correspondence received by the Department between 1 July and 30 September. The centre of the Department collects this data on a quarterly basis to monitor performance against our Service First target of replying to correspondence within 15 working days

Mr. Kaufman

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (1) when he will reply to the letter to him dated 20 September from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. James Hamlett; [20366]

(2) when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 20 September from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. James Hamlett. [16246]

Mr. Spellar

I replied to my right hon. Friend's letter on Thursday 29 November.