Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his policy is on Ministers devolving responsibility for answering hon. Members letters to officials.

As outlined in the ‘Guidance for Handling Correspondence’, correspondence to Ministers from hon. Members should be signed off at an appropriate equivalent ministerial level. Where an MP has written about the day-to-day operations of an Executive Agency or a Non-Departmental Public Body, the appropriate Chief Executive may reply.

Official replies to letters from MPs should only be authorised in some circumstances, for example, when dealing with a large volume of letters on the same issue which would lead to an improvement in departmental performance handling or that it has been decreed that under certain circumstances an official reply would be more appropriate.