§ The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Mr. Douglas Alexander)I am today publishing a report on Departments' and Agencies' performance in handling Members' and Peers' correspondence during the 2002 calendar year. Details are set out in the attached table. Departmental figures, where possible, are based on substantive replies.
For the first time, the report includes performance on handling correspondence received from Members of the House of Lords across all Departments since 1 June 2002.
The footnotes to the table provide general background information on how the figures have been compiled.
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2001 2002 Department of Agency Target set For reply (working days) Number of letters received % of replies within target Target set For reply (working days) Number of letters received % of replies within target Met Office 15 20 80 15 14 100 Veterans Agency 20 279 99 15 265 99 Department for Education and Skills4 15 18,237 76 15 15,595 84 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs5 15 9,905 34 15 11,241 47 Foreign and Commonwealth Office 20 10,275 79 20 15,535 83 UK Visas 15 8,276 78 15 10,322 98 Department of Health6 20 19,665 60 20 17,942 29 NHS Pensions Agency 15 65 98 15 65 95 Medicines Control Agency 10 17 82 15 36 89 Home Office7 *Non Prison Service correspondence 15 *16,251 35 15 *26,053 35 **Prison Service correspondence 20 **1,210 78 20 **1,267 86 Criminal Records Bureau8 — — — 5 632 N/A HM Prison Service 20 1,272 75 20 942 77 UK Passport Service 10 279 87 10 132 97 Inland Revenue3 4 *Local Tax Office delegated figures 18 3,356 77 18 3,157 71 (where local tax offices have replied direct to MPs) 18 382 75 18 *439 80 Valuation Office 23 30 90 18 20 75 Department for International Development4 15 1,740 87 15 2,612 96 Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers2 15 284 96 15 378 63 Lord Chancellor's Department 20 1,737 74 20 2,577 54 Court Service 15 591 68 20 230 84 *15 593 78 HM Land Registry 20 24 79 20 32 100 Public Records Office 10 11 100 15 166 98 **10 61 98 Public Guardianship Office9 15 120 62 15 261 31 *Target for correspondence sent direct to Agency Chief Executive. **Target for correspondence sent direct to Agency Chief Executive. Northern Ireland Office 10 358 49 10 501 59 Compensation Agency for NI 7 27 93 — — — Northern Ireland Prison Service 10 27 78 10 33 91 National Savings and Investments4 15 63 62 15 44 66 National Statistics4 *Letters where Chief Executive 15 192 77 20 212 82 replied on Minister's behalf. 10 *154 63 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister3 — — — 15 5,523 76 Planning Inspectorate 8 364 94 8 291 90 Privy Council Office 15 237 74 15 488 95 Scotland Office 15 96 75 15 115 73 Department for Trade and Industry10 10 9,260 49 10 11,565 41 10 Companies House* 10 50 100 10 45 100 Employment Tribunals Service** 15 12 100 6 46 93 Insolvency Service 10 292 80 10 398 96 Patent Office 10 154 95 10 367 98 Radiocommunication Agency 15 15 100 10 44 89
2001 2002 Department of Agency Target set For reply (working days) Number of letters received % of replies within target Target set For reply (working days) Number of letters received % of replies within target Small Business Service*** 10 47 96 — — — *Letters sent direct to Agency Chief Executive. **Target date for letters sent direct to Agency = 15 working days. ***Figures included in main DTI return. Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions3 15 14,375 84 15 7,671 83 Department for Transport3 — — — 15 6,505 84 Driving Standards Agency3 15 82 100 15 56 98 DVLA 10 915 98 10 729 99 Highways Agency3 15 322 96 15 273 96 Maritime and coastguard Agency 15 21 95 15 27 100 Vehicle Inspectorate 15 32 94 15 27 100 HM Treasury3 15 4,039 78 15 4,647 78 Treasury Solicitor's Department 10 39 100 10 26 100 Wales Office3 15 91 63 15 118 97 Department for Work and Pensions 20 12,698 66 20 14,297 65 Appeals Service 15 87 64 15 52 88 Benefits Agency 20 2,529 90 20 504 87 Child Support Agency 20 3,293 58 20 3,194 51 Employment Service 15 520 94 15 72 95 Jobcentre Plus — — — 15 1,103 57 The Pension Service — — — 15 511 71 Disability and Carers Service — — — 15 749 100 Debt Management — — — 15 30 86 Child Benefit Centre — — — 20 20 95 1 Departments and Agencies who received a total of 10 MPs/Peers letters or less during 2002 are not shown in this table. Holding or interim replies are not included unless otherwise indicated. 2 2002 statistics no longer include interim or holding replies details of which had been included in previous annual reports. 3 Includes interim or holding replies. 4 Includes all Ministerial correspondence eg letters from MEPs, Members of Devolved Legislatures etc. 5 The performance reflects problems in early part of 2002. DEFRA has taken steps to improve performance. Currently answering 74 per cent. correspondence within targets. 6 Poor performance was partly due to problems with a new internal tracking system and problems interfacing with the Agencies. Robust action is now taking place to address these problems including the setting up of a new Customer Service Centre to ensure that problems that occurred in 2002 do not happen again. Also includes figures for the Food Standards Agency as such correspondence is replied to by Department of Health Ministers. 7 The large increase in letters received relating to immigration matters has affected the overall performance. Home Office has made the improvement of performance a high priority with more robust systems being put in place to monitor the progress of correspondence and provide early indications of any outstanding or newly emerging problems, this includes the introduction of a new IT tracking system. 8 Figures for 2002 are not currently available. 9 A major restructuring programme has led to a large backlog of correspondence. There has also been a substantial increase in complaints to Ministers. A major recovery programme was launched to deal with this. 89 per cent. of Ministerial correspondence was answered within target by the end of 2002. 10 Due to problems in meeting the 10 working days target, DTI have raised their target for reply from 10 to 15 working days (in line with majority of other Government departments) for correspondence received in 2003. Raising the level to 15 working days will help improve performance to a more acceptable level.