One in six MPs ignore constituent's email

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One in six MPs didn't bother to respond to a constituent's email inquiry, according to an investigation by weekly computer publication Micro Mart.

Posing as a constituent named Alex Brown, IT PRO's sister publication Micro Mart contacted all 625 MPs for England, Wales and Scotland by email, asking a question about how to go about recycling two computers and a washing machine.

While over 84 per cent of MPs replied in some way, 98 ignored the inquiry - including such high profile politicians as William Hague, Lembit Opik, Ruth Kelly and David Davies. The Micro Mart team received replies from the offices of all party leaders, with no party performing significantly better overall than the others.

Of the majority which did reply, 73 needed a second message to be sent before they responded, with some taking nearly two months.

"Considering MPs can claim allowances running to over £100,000 of taxpayers' money to fund their offices - including a specific £10,000 communications allowance - we were staggered to find so many hadn't put any system in place to simply reply to a constituent's emailed question," said Micro Mart's editor, Simon Brew. "Given the speed and convenience of electronic communication, not least the amount of paper it saves, we expected a greater willingness to reply to an e-mail than we found."

Some of the replies the team did receive were form letters from auto-responders or just asked for the imaginary Brown's postal address, either to mail information or to check if the query was indeed from a constituent.

But other replies were impressive. Mark Lancaster, conservative MP for North East Milton Keynes, replied to say he didn't know the answer - so he tabled a written parliamentary answer on behalf of Brown. Labour MP David Chaytor, of Bury North, sent a personal reply with all the requested details, while the SNP's Mike Weir, of Angus, even offered advice on erasing the computers' hard disks.

The top rated MP - crowned by Micro Mart the tech-savviest MP in England, Wales and Scotland - was also the youngest, Jo Swinson. The Liberal Democrat for East Dunbartonshire sent a reply the very same day, and even wrote the local council's environment director on behalf of Brown. A month later, she even followed up with scanned versions of the letters she received in reply.

"Jo Swinson is a great example of how an MP can embrace technology," said Brew. "By using affordable, simple methods of electronic communication to great effect, she was both incredibly responsive, and quick to get fresh and useful information to us."

The 27-year-old MP said more than half of her constituency casework is now through email, but criticised the £10,000 communications allowance.

"There's a time element in keeping it up to date, but I don't accept that in order to communicate with constituents you need to spend lots and lots of money," she told Micro Mart. "To address this by giving every MP £10,000 is overkill." She pointed out that her own website costs her just £15 a month.

She said using technology doesn't save her time, but it does help her be a better MP.

"The more communication there is, the more likely people are to be engaged, to vote and to play their part," she said. "I don't understand in this day and age how you can afford to ignore these vital communication mechanisms."

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