asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton may expect a reply to the letter which he wrote to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Buckingham, (Mr. Walden), on 21 October 1986 regarding Loughborough university, with a further letter on 30 January 1987 and a telephone call to his private office recently; and if he will instruct his Department to deal more expeditiously with correspondence from hon. Members.

I replied to my hon. Friend on 20 March. I apologise unreservedly for the delay in writing to him. The Department has introduced a new system for handling correspondence from hon. Members. We fully expect this to lead to fewer delays in replying.