Correspondence

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.

	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 Revenue^{3 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.

Volume 405: debated on Thursday 15 May 2003