Departmental Correspondence

Grant Shapps
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what his Department's average response time to a letter received from (a) an hon. Member and (b) a member of the public has been since it was established.

Mr. Mike O'Brien
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 ready. Reports for earlier years are available in the Library of the House.

With respect to correspondence from members of the public, this information cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate costs. The Department does however aim to respond to all written correspondence within 15 working days.

Statistics on the handling of letters from members of the public are published in the DEFRA annual report which will be available later in the year.