Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when she intends to respond to the correspondence dated 7 July, 20 August and 7 October 2026 from the Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East reference SL06980/lm regarding device scanning technology.

A response to the Honourable Member’s correspondence was sent on 2 November 2026. I apologise for the time it has taken to respond and recognise the importance of Honourable Members receiving prompt replies when they write to government ministers.

Recent Machinery of Government changes have contributed to a significant backlog of overdue correspondence, the majority of which relates to policy areas transferred from the former Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

We have set up a dedicated team to rapidly improve the timeliness of our replies and clear the backlog, so that correspondence is once again answered within our 20 working day target.