Written question asked by Lord Astor of Hever (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour) on Thursday, 3 April 2008.

Members' and Peers' Correspondence

Question: asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Statement by Lord Davies of Oldham on 20 March (WS 42–6), why the Ministry of Defence's correspondence database is unable to distinguish between Freedom of Information requests and other correspondence from Members of Parliament and Peers; and

Answer: The Ministry of Defence's correspondence database is used to process all correspondence sent to MoD Ministers. Any correspondence which is considered to be a request for information under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is recorded separately on the Ministry of Defence's Freedom of Information database. Quarterly statistics on FOI requests are provided to the Ministry of Justice and published on their website (www.justice.gov.uk). There are no plans to report the department's performance in handling ministerial correspondence on a monthly basis during 2008.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 700 c199WA; 2835
Session: 2007-08
Related items: Members' and Peers' Correspondence
Thursday, 20 March 2008
Written statements
House of Lords
Subjects: Databases Correspondence Freedom of information Members Peers Ministry of Defence Standards
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk