Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average response time for her Department was to respond substantially to hon. Members' correspondence in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021 so far.

The Department works to a target of responding to 95% of MPs’ written correspondence within 20 working days, for all areas of the business, including asylum, visa and passport applications.

Performance has been impacted by a very significant increase in the volume of correspondence received, including items relating to the situation in Afghanistan.

The Department recognises it has not been able to meet service standard in some cases but has implemented an action plan to clear backlogs and drive up performance.