Response from my MP

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I wrote to Defra (see following blog) and my MP (see here) about the fact that Defra took over 5 months to respond to an enquiry from my MP on my behalf.

I received this response:

Dear Mark,Thank you for your email.I was sorry to hear that you were dissatisfied with the length of response time from DEFRA, though I see from your subsequent email that you have contacted DEFRA directly to make a complaint. Please do let me know if you have any further concerns, or if you think I can be of any further assistance, and I will gladly assist in any way that I am able. Finally, I appreciate you taking the time to let me know that you have signed this petition and I will certainly bear this in mind in my discussions with Ministers.Once again, thank you for having taken the time to contact me and if I can ever be of any further assistance to you then please do not hesitate to contact me again.  With best wishes, Tom Tom Pursglove MPMember of Parliament for Corby & East Northamptonshire

And I have responded as follows:

Dear Mr Pursglove,

Thank you for your response dates 10 February (Case Ref: TP37387).

I did ask the following questions in my original letter and I would still like you to respond to them please:

    1. It has taken Defra five and a half months to reply to our request. This is unacceptable – isn’t it?
    2. Am I right to think that I can complain to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman about this appalling level of service from a government department https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/making-complaint/what-we-can-and-cant-help but only if I first complain directly to Defra?
    3. I have today complained to the Defra Service Standards Complaints Adjudicator and copied you in on the complaint. As I understand it this may be a 2-stage process which has to be exhausted before I can go to the PHSO – is that right please?
    4. I would like your advice on how to push home a complaint about Defra please. And very specifically, do you think that the fact that you did not get a reply for over five months was acceptable?

By the way, I have had a response from Defra which was unacceptable and have written back to them today.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Mark Avery

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