The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Members’ correspondence. As set out in the Guide to Handling Correspondence on gov.uk and in the response to Question 190603, the deadlines set by Departments for responding to correspondence should not exceed 20 working days and they are strongly encouraged to set more challenging deadlines to ensure greater efficiency in responding to correspondence.

While each Department is responsible for managing their own timeliness in responding to correspondence, the Cabinet Office, as owners of the Guide to Handling Correspondence, regularly engages with correspondence officials in Government Departments to discuss and review performance and issues that may be impacting performance. The Cabinet Office also publishes correspondence performance data on GOV.UK on a regular basis, detailing departmental performance in handling correspondence. This can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1145941/Data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-MPs-and-Peers-in-2022.docx.pdf

The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Members’ correspondence. As set out in the Guide to Handling Correspondence on gov.uk and in the response to Question 190603, the deadlines set by Departments for responding to correspondence should not exceed 20 working days and they are strongly encouraged to set more challenging deadlines to ensure greater efficiency in responding to correspondence.

While each Department is responsible for managing their own timeliness in responding to correspondence, the Cabinet Office, as owners of the Guide to Handling Correspondence, regularly engages with correspondence officials in Government Departments to discuss and review performance and issues that may be impacting performance. The Cabinet Office also publishes correspondence performance data on GOV.UK on a regular basis, detailing departmental performance in handling correspondence. This can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1145941/Data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-MPs-and-Peers-in-2022.docx.pdf

The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Members’ correspondence. As set out in the Guide to Handling Correspondence on gov.uk and in the response to Question 190603, the deadlines set by Departments for responding to correspondence should not exceed 20 working days and they are strongly encouraged to set more challenging deadlines to ensure greater efficiency in responding to correspondence.

While each Department is responsible for managing their own timeliness in responding to correspondence, the Cabinet Office, as owners of the Guide to Handling Correspondence, regularly engages with correspondence officials in Government Departments to discuss and review performance and issues that may be impacting performance. The Cabinet Office also publishes correspondence performance data on GOV.UK on a regular basis, detailing departmental performance in handling correspondence. This can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1145941/Data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-MPs-and-Peers-in-2022.docx.pdf

Departments across government work to strict internal deadlines to ensure responses are progressed within 20 working days. The Guide to Handling Correspondence on gov.uk clearly sets out the importance this government attaches to the effective and efficient handling of correspondence received from Members.

Whilst 4 weeks is the deadline to respond to correspondence, departments are encouraged to set more challenging deadlines.

Officials working on correspondence across government departments are encouraged to engage regularly with policy officials, to ensure responses going out to Members are drafted and progressed as efficiently as possible. Cabinet Office regularly engages with correspondence officials in other Government departments to discuss performance and what may be impacting their performance.

As set out in the response to Question 188915, Government Ministers are expected to respond quickly and effectively to Members’ correspondence and I will continue to drive that message. Every effort must be made to reply to correspondence promptly and within the original deadline.

The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence.

As per the Cabinet Office’s Guide to Handling Correspondence on gov.uk, departments and agencies should aim to respond to correspondence from MPs within a 20 working day target deadline, but are advised to consider setting more challenging deadlines than 20 working days to ensure a better minimum service level.

Performance data on responses to correspondence from Parliamentarians for 2022 can be found on gov.uk. This data shows the volume of correspondence received by government departments and agencies from Parliamentarians and the percentage that was responded to within each department’s target deadline as well as the 20 working day maximum target deadline.

I expect Government Ministers to respond quickly and effectively to Members’ correspondence and I will continue to drive that message.