Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his Department's target is for time taken to respond to letters and emails from hon. Members; what the average time taken by his Department to respond to such letters and emails is; and how many such letters and emails received between 1 January and 30 September 2015 remained unanswered after eight weeks.

My Department aims to reply to all correspondence from hon. Members within 15 working days.

Guidance for Departments on handling correspondence from Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords, Members of the European Parliament and Members of Devolved Administrations is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/441892/Cabinet_Office_Guidance_on_correspondence.pdf”

Departmental performance on handling correspondence is published annually. The latest publication is available at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2015-06-03/HCWS11/”