Departmental Correspondence

Grant Shapps
To ask the Minister for the Olympics what her Office’s average response time to a letter received from (a) an hon. Member and (b) a member of the public was in each year since its establishment.

Tessa Jowell
The Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of Departments in replying to Members correspondence. The report for 2007 was published on 20 March 2008, Official Report, columns 71-74WS. Information for 2008 is currently being collated and will be published as soon as it is ready. Reports for earlier years are available in the Library of the House. General correspondence to the Minister for the Olympics on Olympic issues is responded to by officials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport aims to respond to letters from the public within 20 working days of receipt. Statistics on the percentage responded to within this target are available in the Department’s annual reports. I am informed that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport could provide information on average response times to letters from the public only at disproportionate cost.