Bob Neill (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government; Bromley and Chislehurst, Conservative)
From 12 May 2010 to 31 December 2010, Ministers received some 23,300 letters. Excluding correspondence subsequently transferred to other Departments for a reply and correspondence passed to officials for a reply, some 13,100 letters were dealt with at ministerial level. One letter was not answered within six months and 74 were not answered within three months (this represents just 0.57% of such correspondence). Of these, the one letter not answered within six months and 42 of those not answered within three months were from hon. Members. There were no unanswered letters which required a reply.
From 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011, Ministers received some 35,700 letters. Excluding correspondence subsequently transferred to other Departments for a reply and correspondence passed to officials for a reply, some 19,700 were dealt with at ministerial level. Nine were not answered within six months and 62 were not answered within three months (this represents just 0.36% of such correspondence). Of these, eight letters not answered within six months, and 41 not answered within three months, were from hon. Members. There were no unanswered letters which required a reply.
The Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of Departments in replying to Members correspondence. The report for 2011 was published on 15 March 2012, Hansard, columns 30-33WS. Reports for earlier years are available in the Library of the House. The report shows that DCLG received 12,680 letters from hon. Members and peers and responded to 65% within 10 working days.
