§ The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Mr. Douglas Alexander)I am today publishing a report on Departments' and Agencies' performance on handling Members' and Peers' correspondence for 2003. Details are shown in the table. Departmental figures are based on substantive replies unless otherwise indicated.
The footnotes on the table provide general background information on how the figures have been compiled.
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Correspondence from Mps/Peers to Ministers and agency chief executives1 2002 2003 Department or 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
Public Guardianship Office 15 261 31 15 95 88 *Target for correspondence sent direct to Agency Chief Executive. **Target for correspondence sent direct to Agency Chief Executive. Crown Prosecution Service 15 366 85 15 298 88 Department for Culture, Media and Sport 18 4,767 83 18 5,460 85 HM Customs and Excise4 18 1,616 59 18 2,040 62 Ministry of Defence4 15 5,381 83 15 5,565 76 Armed Forces Personnel 15 18 100 15 93 98 Administration Agency Army Personnel Centre — — — 15 16 94 Defence Aviation Repair Agency 10 14 100 — — — Defence Estates — — — 15 24 88 Defence Housing Executive — — — 15 14 79 Met Office 15 14 100 — — — UK Hydrographic Office — — — 15 14 100 Veterans Agency 15 265 99 15 251 94 Department for Education and Skills4 15 15,595 84 15 14,424 92 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 15 11,241 47 15 10,410 68 Food Standards Agency5 — — — 20 981 13 Foreign and Commonwealth Office 20 15,535 83 20 30,168 80 UK Visas6 15 10,322 98 15 16,964 86 Department of Health7 20 17,942 29 20 19,029 54 NHS Pensions Agency 15 65 95 10 63 84 Medicines Control Agency 15 36 89 — — — Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency — — — 10 26 85 Home 0ffice8 *Non Prison Service correspondence 15 26,053* 35 15 37,153 58 **Prison Service correspondence 20 1,267** (20 days for IND) Criminal Records Bureau9 5 632 N/A 10 461 92 HM Prison Service 20 942 77 20 1,437 65 UK Passport Service 10 132 97 10 337 79 Inland Revenue4, 10 18 3,157 71 18 2,803 81 *Local Tax Office delegated figures (where local tax offices have replied to direct to Mps) 18 439* 80 18 1,795* 35 Valuation Office4 18 20 75 18 13 77 Department for International Development 15 2,612 96 15 3,676 88 Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lord's Office 15 155 96 15 43 88 Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers 15 378 63 15 325 65 Northern Ireland Office 10 501 59 10 503 69 Northern Ireland Prison Service 10 33 91 10 44 68 National Savings and Investments4 15 44 66 15 24 70 National Statistics4 20 212 82 15 193 84 *Letters where National Statistician replied on * Minister's behalf 10 104 84 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 15 5,523 76 15 8,737 73 Planning Inspectorate 8 291 90 8 384 89 Office of the Leader of the House of Commons 15 488 95 15 385 96 Scotland Office 15 115 73 15 73 87 Department for Trade and Industry11 10 11,565 41 15 14,678 58 Companies House* 10 45 100 10 33 100 Employment Tribunals Service** 6 46 93 — — — Insolvency Service 10 398 96 10 34 88 Patent Office 10 367 98 10 484 98 Radiocommunication Agency12 10 44 89 — — — Small Business Service*** — — — — — *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 of Transport, Local Government and the Regions 15 7,671 83 — — —
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Correspondence from Mps/Peers to Ministers and agency chief executives1 2002 2003 Department or 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
Department for Transport 15 6,505 84 15 10,196 88 Driving Standards Agency 15 56 98 15 108 90 DVLA 10 729 99 7 1,028 99 Highways Agency 15 273 96 15 263 85 Maritime and Coastguard Agency 15 27 100 10 33 97 Vehicle Inspectorate 15 27 100 — — — Vehicle and Operator Services Agency — — — 15 25 92 HM Treasury4 15 4,647 78 15 4,036 83 Treasury Solicitor's Department 10 26 100 10 34 100 Wales Office 15 118 97 15 120 82 Department for Work and Pensions 20 14,297 65 20 12,157 74 Appeals Service 15 52 88 15 84 88 Benefits Agency 20 504 87 — — — Child Support Agency 20 3,194 51 20 3,521 87 Employment Service 15 72 95 — — — Jobcentre Plus 15 1,103 57 15 1,052 69 The Pension Service 15 511 71 15 1,157 50 Disability and Carers Service 15 749 100 15 554 99 Debt Management 15 30 86 15 31 85 Child Benefit Centre13 20 20 95 20 11 91 Health and Safety Executive — — — 10 195 91 1 Departments and Agencies which received 10 Mps/Peers letters or less during 2003 are not shown in this table. Holding or interim replies are not included unless otherwise indicated. 2 DCA is currently undertaking changes to its processes for handling correspondence. In the short term these have lead to delays in response time, but in the longer term will improve the quality of responses. These changes include quality control of all responses, and revising the DCA correspondence monitoring system. 3 Formerly the Public Record Office. 4 Includes all Ministerial correspondence. 5 The statistics for the FSA are dominated by a single lobbying campaign which accounted for almost 70% of its total annual correspondence. The Agency is reviewing its procedures for handling peaks of work arising from such a campaign. Majority of replies are signed by Health Ministers. 6 2003 figures also include a small number of letters from members of the public. 7 Department of Health improved its performance to just under 70% in the last quarter of 2003. 8 Figures include a small number of interim replies relating to correspondence sent to HM Prison Service. 2003 performance figures also include 16,268 cases answered directly by the Director General of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. Response times to these cases relate to drafting performance only. Figures based on final replies will be available for 2004. Immigration and Nationality Directorate response target was increased to 20 working days with effect from 1 April 2003 to account for the wide geographical spread of offices and the nature of the correspondence which is predominantly about specific cases rather than policy issues. 9 The CRB target was raised from 5 to 10 working days at the beginning of 2003 to reflect the standard set out in the CRB's Corporate Plan. 10 Performance suffered due to the exceptionally high volume of correspondence following the introduction of the Working and Child Tax Credits in April 2003 and because early in 2003–04, the Revenue's priority was to get claimants into payment. Since the processing of tax credits claims has been stable, the Revenue has restored normal complaints-handling procedures and increased the resources on its complaints teams. As a result, performance should begin to improve. 11 DTI increased its response target from 10 to 15 working days with effect from 1 January in line with other main Whitehall departments. 12 2003 data currently not available because of transfer to OFCOM. 13 The Child Benefit Centre transferred to the Inland Revenue with effect from 1 April 2003. Figures quoted are for the period 1/1/03 to 31/3/03.