Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 3 July to Question 190603 on Cabinet Office: Members, what the deadline to respond to correspondence set by each Government Department was as of 5 July 2023.

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