Figures uncovered by the Welsh Conservatives reveal that the First Minister has one of the Welsh Labour Government’s worst records for responding promptly to correspondence.
The data reveals that in the last five and a half years almost 10,000 items of correspondence were not answered within the 17 working day target.
On average 86% of ministerial mail received a response within the target 3 and a half week timeframe, but some Ministers, including the First Minister have a prompt response rate of less than 82%.
The Minister with the largest mailbag in the past 18 months has been Health Minister Lesley Griffiths with 2,224 items. The member of the Welsh Government with the lightest workload was Deputy Skills Minister Jeff Cuthbert with an average of less than three letters a week.
Russell George, Assembly Member for Montgomeryshire, uncovered the figures through a Freedom of Information request.
Russell George AM said, “These figures reveal that many Welsh Ministers are taking too long to reply to correspondence.
“When a Minister receives an item of correspondence from a member of the public, a business or an organisation, it is only polite and professional to respond as swiftly as possible.
“The Welsh Government’s target response time for correspondence is almost a month and should provide plenty of time to draft a considered response.
“Lazy Ministers must take action to improve their correspondence response rates and not leave the public or businesses hanging waiting for the decency of a reply.
“These figures also show that the Health Minister has had the largest mailbag, which is entirely understandable given the controversial NHS downgrading and centralising proposals she is overseeing.”
Notes:
The following response to a Freedom of Information request was received by Russell George AM:
1. During the whole of the Third Assembly and since the start of the Fourth Assembly, broken down by each ministerial office, how many pieces of written correspondence has each Minister received; and how many have been fully answered by the designated timeframe by which Ministers must respond;
2. During the whole of the Third Assembly and since the start of the Fourth Assembly, broken down by each ministerial office, how many pieces of email correspondence has each Minister received; and how many have been fully answered by the designated timeframe by which Ministers must respond.
Minister
(a) Items of correspondence received during the Third Assembly
3rd May 2007 –4th May 2011
(b) Items of correspondence for Ministerial answer
(c) Items of correspondence answered within 17 working days (as percentage of (b))
Alun Ffred Jones
2621
1529
1280 (83.7%)
Andrew Davies
451
420
285 (67.9%)
Brian Gibbons
2212
1926
1788 (92.8%)
Carl Sargeant
1711
853
746 (87.5%)
Deputy First Minister/Ieuan Wyn Jones
7891
6087
4257 (69.9%)
First Minister/Carwyn Jones
1552
921
785 (85.2%)
First Minister/Rhodri Morgan
1546
1340
1101 (82.2%)
Elin Jones
3745
2544
2097 (82.4%)
Edwina Hart
15791
15056
12636 (83.9%)
Gwenda Thomas
1863
1276
1096 (85.9%)
Huw Lewis
384
116
94 (81.0%)
Jane Hutt
5019
3369
2981(88.5%)
Jane Davidson
7082
4871
4129 (84.8%)
Jocelyn Davies
2230
1386
1128 (81.4%)
John Griffiths
1345
1125
954 (84.8%).
Leighton Andrews
3392
1992
1764 (88.6%)
Lesley Griffiths
393
178
145 (81.5%)
Rhodri Glyn Thomas
770
770
712 (92.5%)
Minister
(a) Items of correspondence received during the Fourth Assembly (ie from 5th May 2011) and due for response by 14th November 2012
(b) Items of correspondence for Ministerial answer
(c) Items of correspondence answered within 17 working days (as percentage of (b))
First Minister
1538
565
462 (81.8%)
Alun Davies
881
538
472 (87.7%)
Carl Sargeant
3859
1706
1352 (79.2%)
Edwina Hart
2545
1829
1716 (93.8%)
Gwenda Thomas
1313
559
448 (80.1%)
Huw Lewis
2152
818
666 (81.4%)
Jane Hutt
607
206
190 (92.2%)
Jeff Cuthbert
730
270
219 (81.1%)
John Griffiths
3926
1558
1290 (82.8%)
Leighton Andrews
3247
1258
1140 (90.6%)
Lesley Griffiths
5268
2475
2224 (89.9%)
Items responded to by Ministers within the 17 day deadline are shown as a percentage of column (b) and not column (a).
In addition to the letters which Ministers respond to column (a) includes, from July 2009, letters which require no reply, letters on non-devolved issues which are transferred to the UK Government, letters answered by officials on behalf of Ministers and invitations and meeting requests which are handled according to separate arrangements. For the period up to July 2009 invitations and meeting requests are included in the figures in column (b) and (c).