§ Mr. CranTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when a substantive reply will be given to Dr. R. D. Fouracre's letter of 1 August 2001, concerning continence management services. [36840]
§ Jacqui SmithI apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to the question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave
432Wmental and behavioural disorders, in England, for 1996–97 to 2001–01. The figures for 2000–01 are provisional, as no adjustments have yet been made for shortfalls in data.
my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, column 192W.
The Department has no record of receiving this correspondence. The hon. Member's office have been asked to supply a duplicate.
§ Mr. EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average response time was for responding to departmental correspondence; what percentage of letters took longer than one month for a response; and what percentage took longer than three months for a response in each of the last five years. [37441]
§ Ms BlearsThe available information is in the table, which shows the percentage of letters replied to within the Department's service first targets of 20 working days.
Year Volume of letters Percentage increase Percentage of replies sent on target 1998 10,648 — 61.0 1999 18,346 Up 72.0 47.0 2000 18,621 Up 1.5 50.0 2001 19,665 Up 5.6 60.0