Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, 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 FCDO attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence and endeavours to respond to all correspondence within Cabinet Office timeframes. However, we do not hold central records on average response times and this information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. Correspondence data for all Government Departments is published annually by the Cabinet Office [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers-2022].