To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints were received by his Department and its executive agencies in (a) 1997-98, (b) 2001-02 and (c) 2005-06; and how many have been received in 2006-07 to date. (121665)

The Home Office does not record complaints received in writing or over the telephone. These separately are received and recorded as part of overall correspondence figures. Once received, all correspondence including any complaints is either sent to individual policy units to be dealt with or is dealt with centrally. They are not tracked separately.

The Identity and Passport Service recorded 8,597 complaints in 2005-06 and 9,410 complaints in 2006-07.

Since 2001, the Borders and Immigration Agency have been recording complaints about the misconduct of staff, and recorded 555 complaints in 2001-02; 240 complaints in 2005-06 and 326 complaints in 2006-07. During 2005-06, the Border and Immigration Agency also began recording operational complaints (about service delivery). The figure for 2006 is 8,966.

Border and Immigration Agency are planning a complete overhaul of the system under their complaints change programme.