§ Lord Stoddart of Swindonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 16 April (WA 154), whether they will now answer the Question asked, namely, "why the Department of Health did not acknowledge or reply to a letter concerning mixed-sex wards sent by the Lord Stoddart of Swindon to the Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 12 December 2001 until 11 March 2002; and whether they will give assurance that the response time to letters from Members will be considerably reduced in future". [HL3919]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathI regret that I cannot explain why the noble Lord did not receive an acknowledgement. I apologise to the noble Lord. The department's computer system for tracking and monitoring ministerial correspondence automatically prints out acknowledgement letters for each piece of correspondence registered. The delay in replying was caused by a temporary backlog which has since been cleared.
The department is in the process of reviewing procedures to improve response times in line with the Service First Targets.