Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data their Department holds on the average response time to enquiries by Members; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Members of Parliament, either directly or on behalf of their constituents. The Department runs tailored training sessions for Departmental colleagues specific to ministerial correspondence to improve the quality and timeliness of responses.
The deadlines set by government departments and agencies for responding to correspondence from Members of Parliament and Peers should not exceed 20 working days. The Department has set a more ambitious deadline of 18 days to ensure a customer-centred approach.
The table below provides the volumes of correspondence from Members of Parliament and Peers received between 1 January 2023 and 30 June 2023.
Receipt Date | Correspondence from MPs and Peers | On time 18 days | On time 20 days | Average time to reply |
01/01/2023 – 30/06/2023 | 4,029 | 70.4% | 72.3% | 23 days |
The timeliness of Ministerial Correspondence is reviewed weekly by Ministers and the Permanent Secretary and continues to be a priority.