Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many new enquiries her Department's MP Urgent Enquiries inbox handled in each month in from January 2021 to May 2022; what steps her Department is taking to manage the (a) performance and (b) case management of those teams; what steps she is taking to oversee the performance of the Urgent Enquiry inbox; and if she will make a statement.

The FCDO does not have a specific MP Urgent Enquiries inbox. All MPs use the FCDO correspondence mailbox which is monitored during working hours. MPs can also refer urgent issues via the MP hotline.

Between January 2021 and May 2022 the FCDO correspondence mailbox handled 18,435 pieces of MPs' correspondence. This figure does not include all correspondence about the Afghanistan crisis, given the exceptionally high volume received over a short period last year. MPs' correspondence on Afghanistan received by 12 September 2021 was not recorded on central systems. The data below reflects MPs' correspondence received after 12 September.

The FCDO correspondence mailbox is managed internally through a robust performance system working to Cabinet Office guidance on timeliness. All correspondence is normally handled through our case management system.