To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the published recommended response times within which his Department is expected to reply to letters from the public.

There is no published overall target for responding to letters from the public because of the diverse nature of the Department's work. Individual units and agencies are, however, required to set clear targets for the time taken to deal with letters from the public, and to monitor performance against those targets. The targets set range from five to 30 working days.