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1240/5(2912)
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT AND TECHNICAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY G.C.L. BAUDAINS OF ST. CLEMENT
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 6th JUNE 2006
Question
Will the Minister inform members of the current timescale in which he deals with and replies to incoming communications and also give an indication of how this may change in the future?
Answer
It is the normal practice of the Transport and Technical Services Department to acknowledge incoming communications within two working days and to provide a response within two weeks. In the generality, communications addressed to the Minister would fall into this procedural pattern. However, the Minister does not consider himself bound by the existing departmental protocol and the Minister does not simply use the measurement of time to deal with incoming communications. In practice, the Minister applies a further series of protocols that are kept under regular review.
Incoming communications will be dealt with differently, for example, according to whether they are addressed to the Minister of Transport and Technical Services or to Deputy Guy de Faye, which may imply constituency matters as opposed to Transport and Technical Services business. Similarly, hand written, typed or printed letters are usually accorded a higher level of priority than e-mails and, in the case of e-mails, whether as Minister or Deputy , there may be no response made at all, if the e-mail is merely copying information sent to a different primary recipient. On rare occasions, it is possible that an incoming communication might be deemed to be malicious or vexatious and consequently not warrant a reply.
It should be stressed that the preceding examples should be regarded as indicators of how responses to communications may be handled. There are numerous factors that can impact upon any given exchange of correspondence, such as complexity of research or absence of particular key personnel, which will then affect the priority and timing attached to an individual communication and its subsequent response.
The Minister does not anticipate any substantial change to this overall approach in the immediate future.