Written question asked by Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 29 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 1 December 2005. It was answered by Mike O'Brien (Labour) on Tuesday, 6 December 2005 on behalf of the Solicitor General.

Bona Vacantia Division

Question: To ask The Solicitor-General what the national targets are for the Bona Vacantia division; and what the performance of relevant offices in South Devon has been against those targets.

Answer: There are no national targets for the Bona Vacantia division for either receipts or volumes of new cases as it would be inappropriate to set targets in these areas. The Bona Vacantia division does not in general seek out bona vacantia assets relying instead on notification by others.Income and expenditure from bona vacantia is detailed in the Crown's nominee account, laid before Parliament each financial year. The Bona Vacantia division operates from the offices of the Treasury solicitor based in central London. There are no other Bona Vacantia offices located anywhere else in England and Wales.Information on the volume of cases as well as a suite of internal quality targets is kept by the division. These include responding to new cases within five working days, against which performance in the year to date is 94.3 per cent. and responding to complaints within 10 working days, against which performance this year is 100 per cent.. Apart from Northern Ireland there is no geographical breakdown of this information for England and Wales.

Secondary information