To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his Department has standards of service for responding to correspondence from (a) members of the public and (b) hon. Members. (319187)

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) follows the Cabinet Office guidelines for answering correspondence from members of the public and hon. Members. The Cabinet Office target is for ministerial correspondence to be answered within 20 working days. However, the MOD has undertaken to respond to 90 per cent. of letters from MPs and Peers within 15 working days. The MOD also aims to respond to all correspondence from members of the public within 15 working days.

The Cabinet Office publishes on an annual basis, a report on Departments' and agencies' performance on handling ministerial correspondence, and the report for 2009 will be published once figures have been collated.