The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
I am today publishing a report on Departments’ and agencies’ performance on handling Members’ and peers’ correspondence during the calendar year 2011. Details are set out in the table below. Correspondence statistics for 2010 can be found on 28 March 2011, Official Report, 1WS.
Departmental figures are based on substantive replies unless otherwise indicated. The footnotes to the table provide general background information on how the figures have been compiled.
Correspondence from MPs/Peers to Ministers and Agency Chief Executives1 | 2011 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Department or Agency | Target set for reply (working days) | Number of letter received | % of replies within target |
Attorney General’s Office | 20 | 318 | 92 |
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills | 15 | 14,857 | 82 |
- Companies House | 10 | 134 | 100 |
- Insolvency Service | 10 | 49 | 88 |
- Land Registry2 | 15 | 134 | 36 |
- Met Office | 10 | 14 | 83 |
- Skills Funding Agency | 10 | 240 | 85 |
Cabinet Office | 15 | 3,988 | 63 |
Charity Commission | 153 | 133 | 84 |
Department for Communities and Local Government4 | 10 | 12,680 | 65 |
- Planning Inspectorate | 7 | 399 | 95 |
Crown Prosecution Service | 20 | 411 | 97 |
Department for Culture, Media and Sport5 | 20 | 5,913 | 96 |
- Royal Parks | 10 | 28 | 100 |
Ministry of Defence | 15 | 6,315 | 81 |
- Service Personnel and Veterans Agency6 | 15 | 67 | 93 |
Department for Education7 | 15 | 18,666 | 39 |
Department of Energy and Climate Change | 15 | 7,560 | 82 |
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | 15 | 12,069 | 80 |
- Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency | 15 | 174 | 87 |
- Rural Payments Agency | 15 | 222 | 81 |
Food Standards Agency | |||
DH Ministers replies | 20 | 214 | 99 |
FSA Chair/CE replies | 20 | 121 | 89 |
Foreign and Commonwealth Office | 20 | 10,402 | 87 |
Department of Health | 20 | 18,686 | 99 |
- Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency | 20 | 422 | 98 |
Home Office8 | 15 | 9,878 | 57 |
- Criminal Records Bureau | 15 | 727 | 97 |
- Identity and Passport Service | 10 | 1,206 | 81 |
- UK Border Agency | 20 | 48,712 | 90 |
Department for International Development | 15 | 3,894 | 97 |
Ministry of Justice | 15 | 8,608 | 70 |
- HM Courts Service and Tribunals Service | 15 | 846 | 86 |
- National Archive | 15 | 11 | 91 |
- National Offender Management Service | 15* 20** | 1,077 342 | 73 83 |
- Office of the Public Guardian | 15 | 198 | 95 |
- Official Solicitor and Public Trustee | 15 | 47 | 100 |
*Where Ministers replied | |||
**Where CEO replied | |||
Northern Ireland Office | 15 | 485 | 86 |
Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Schools | 15 | 136 | 90 |
Office of Fair Trading | 15 | 665 | 88 |
Office of Gas and Electricity Markets | 15 | 285 | 67 |
Office of the Leader of the House of Commons | 15 | 171 | 90 |
Office of the Leader of the House of Lords | 15 | 159 | 90 |
Office of Rail Regulation | 20 | 47 | 88 |
OFWAT (Water Services Regulation Authority) | 10 | 93 | 76 |
Scotland Office | 15 | 144 | 84 |
Serious Fraud Office | 20 | 30 | 83 |
Department for Transport | 15 | 11,766 | 519 |
- Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency | 7 | 1,549 | 99 |
- Driving Standards Agency | 10 | 103 | 98 |
- Highways Agency | 15 | 367 | 96 |
- Maritime and Coastguard Agency | 10 | 29 | 83 |
- Vehicle and Operator Services Agency | 10 | 84 | 93 |
HM Treasury | 15 | 14,453 | 62 |
- H M Revenue and Customs10 | 15 | 2,705 | 48 |
- HMRC CEO* | 15 | 7,715 | 36 |
*Cases where the HMRC’s Chief Executive has replied directly, rather than Ministers | |||
Treasury Solicitor's Department | 10 | 17 | 100 |
Wales Office | 15 | 75 | 87 |
Department for Work and Pensions | 20 | 24,883 | 94 |
- Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission* | 15 | 3,058 | 99 |
- Debt Management* | 15 | 13 | 90 |
- Health and Safety Executive* | 15 | 124 | 93 |
- Jobcentre Plus* | 15 | 2,753 | 94 |
- Pension, Disability and Carers Service* | 15 | 2,133 | 100 |
* Letters sent direct to Chief Executive/Officials | |||
1Departments and Agencies which received 10 MPs/Peers letters or fewer are not shown in this table. Holding or interim replies are not included unless otherwise indicated. The report does not include correspondence considered as Freedom of Information requests. 2Drop in performance was due to significant increase in correspondence from February - April on property fraud, alongside a change in Chief Executive. Performance for the remainder of 2011 rose to 50% with October to December at 63% 3Response target 15 working days with effect from 1 April 2011. 4Response target reduced to 10 working days with effect from May 2010. Performance against 15 working days was 85% 5DCMS also monitor Ministerial correspondence to the following Departmental targets: 2 working days - 41% of responses sent. 10 working days - 79% of responses sent 6Agency wound up with effect from 16 June 2011. 7Between January and June 2011, the Department cleared a substantial backlog of correspondence following a 20% increase in correspondence overall since May 2010. For the January-June period 34% of correspondence was sent within the 15 day target, and 47% within 20 days. The Department has now put in place a new system to improve quality and deal with sustained higher volumes of correspondence. Between July and December 47% of letters were sent within the 15 day target, and 66% of letters were sent within 20 days. The Department expects improvements in performance to continue in 2012. 8Includes the Government Equalities Office. 9This decrease in performance is due to a number of factors - including an overall increase in correspondence volumes of 24%, introduction of a new correspondence handling system, and departmental re-structuring. A number of measures have now been put in place to improve performance, including improved reporting arrangements; process efficiencies and an increased focus on clearance. 10Correspondence often about complex individual tax matters hence delays in replying. Improvements in place to improve performance. |