Student Loans Company: Telephone Services

Mr. Stewart Jackson
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the (a) average time taken to answer a call, (b) average waiting time for a member of the public during a call, (c) percentage of calls dropped or not answered and (d) average length of a call was in call centres run by the Student Loans Company in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mr. Lammy
The following information has been provided by the Student Loans Company (SLC) and relates to all inbound traffic to SLC's centres in Darlington, Glasgow and Wales, relating to calls from all customers about applications for loans, grants and other products administered on behalf of England, Wales and Northern Ireland and about repayment of loans by customers from all domiciles.

(a) The average time taken to answer a call (including interactive voice responses) and (b) the average waiting time for a member of the public during a call to the Student Loans Company in the latest period for which figures are available is set out in table 1.

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|         |Average time|
------------------------
|2009     |            |
------------------------
|April    |03:01       |
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|May      |02:40       |
------------------------
|June     |01:57       |
------------------------
|July     |02:38       |
------------------------
|August   |03:07       |
------------------------
|September|05:13       |
------------------------
|October  |02:15       |
------------------------
|November |01:59       |
------------------------
|December |02:21       |
------------------------
|         |            |
------------------------
|2010     |            |
------------------------
|January  |02:04       |
------------------------
|February |00:44       |
------------------------
|March    |01:00       |
------------------------


(c) The percentage of calls abandoned or not answered is set out in table 2.

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|             |Percentage|
--------------------------
|2009         |          |
--------------------------
|April        |23.2      |
--------------------------
|May          |23.4      |
--------------------------
|June         |24.5      |
--------------------------
|July         |28.3      |
--------------------------
|August       |71.1      |
--------------------------
|September    |85.4      |
--------------------------
|October      |33.0      |
--------------------------
|November     |15.4      |
--------------------------
|December 2009|15.0      |
--------------------------
|             |          |
--------------------------
|2010         |          |
--------------------------
|January      |19.1      |
--------------------------
|February     |4.8       |
--------------------------
|March        |5.1       |
--------------------------


(d) The average length of a call in call centres run by the Student Loans Company in the latest period is set out in table 3.

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|         |Average length of call|
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|2009     |                      |
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|April    |07:03                 |
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|May      |06:51                 |
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|June     |06:08                 |
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|July     |06:02                 |
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|August   |06:26                 |
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|September|07:10                 |
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|October  |06:49                 |
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|November |06:51                 |
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|December |06:29                 |
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|         |                      |
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|2010     |                      |
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|January  |06:09                 |
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|February |05:40                 |
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|March    |05:37                 |
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