§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, pursuant to her answer of 28 November 2001,Offical Report, column 1005W on the Parliamentary Ombudsman, what the circumstances were of the cases which gave rise to (a) a period of 91 working days and (b) a period of 55 days being taken by the Court Service to respond. [20185]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe information given was in calendar days rather than working days as had been requested. Those cases were dealt within 64 and 38 working days. I attach a copy of the amended statistical table.(a) The case of Lavender was sent to the Court Service on 7 August. The PCA asked for comments by 17 September. A reply was sent to the PCA on 6 November. There was a delay of 34 working days. The 112W delay was due to the file being mislaid. The PCA was kept informed of the progress in locating the file at all times. (b) The case of Glasser was sent to the Court Service on 6 July. The PCA asked for comments by 23 August. A reply was sent to the PCA on 5 September. There was a delay of eight working days. A meeting has been arranged between the Court Service and the PCA to address the problems that occurred in these matters and to avoid any future difficulties.
Formal notices issued by Parliamentary Ombudsman: 1 April to 31 October 2001 Department Number received Number responded to Working days to respond to each notice Lord Chancellor's Department1 2 2 16, 17 Court Service 10 10 8, 9, 24, 12, 17, 17, 24, 33, 38, 64 Public Guardianship Office 2 1 26 HM Land Registry 1 1 19 Northern Ireland Court Service 0 0 — Public Record Office 0 0 — 1 Letter of 27 February 2001 not received until 30 April 2001