§ Mr. EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of parliamentary written answers from his Department in the last session consisted of a promise to write to an hon. Member. [83784]
§ Beverley HughesThe Home Office was asked 6,714 parliamentary written questions last session. Of these, 203, or three per cent. were given an "I will write" reply.
§ Mr. EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many parliamentary written questions last session were responded to within(a) a week, (b) two weeks and (c) three weeks. [83785]
§ Beverley HughesThe Home Office was asked 6,714 parliamentary written questions last session. Of these, 2,613 were responded to within a week, 1,903 were answered within two weeks and 601 were answered within three weeks. We recognise that our performance in answering parliamentary questions is not as good as 989W it should be, and we are working closely with directorates and its business change and IT partners to improve the situation.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) parliamentary questions and (b) letters from hon. Members in Session 2001–02 remain unanswered, broken down by those which are (i) one month old, (ii) two months old, (iii) three months old, (iv) four months old and (v) over six months old. [84804]
§ Beverley Hughes[holding answer 3 December 2002]: The total number of letters received from hon. Members in the last session (2001–2002) was 26,769. The number that remain unanswered as at 6 December is 2,704.
Number Total received 26,769 Total unanswered 2,704 Less than one month old 641 One month old 415 Two months old 222 Three months old 210 Four months old 229 Five months old 177 Six months old 810 The Home Office receives a large amount of correspondence from hon. Members. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary and his ministerial team attach the highest importance to the speed and quality of replies to ministerial correspondence, but we recognise that further work is needed to improve the current levels of performance. A number of important initiatives within the Department have helped drive up performance and we are committed to continuing and extending this work. A new computer-based correspondence tracking system will be introduced shortly which will radically change the way we handle letters and will help us produce more timely responses.
Most of the delays occur when responding to MPs' letters in relation to immigration cases, Whilst there is no doubt that the current performance is unacceptable, in many cases when a letter is received regarding an immigration case, it is necessary to locate the relevant file and get it to the person responding to the letter. The fact that cases are dealt with in various parts of the country adds to the difficulty. However, I have instigated further measures to resolve the backlog.
The Cabinet Office publishes annual reports to Parliament, setting out the volume of Members' correspondence received by departments. The report for 2001 was published on Friday 24 May. Copies of previous reports are available in the Library.
In accordance with the normal procedure, all outstanding parliamentary questions from the last session were answered before the session ended. Where a substantive answer was not available, honourable Members will receive a letter giving a full answer shortly, if they have not done so yet. A copy of all such letters will be placed in the Library.