6 June 2008

Dear Mr Felch,

Thank you for your correspondence of 15 May requesting information on telephony volumes and call handling for telephone number 0845 608 8645. This is the telephone number for Coatbridge Benefit Delivery Centre (BDC) which deals with customer enquiries for the Jobcentre Plus benefits administered there.

To enable me to respond fully to the issues you raised, I asked Brian Logan, Coatbridge BDC Manager to provide me with the information you require.

We do not at present have statistically valid telephony management information for this site but we are in the process of rolling out new advanced telephony systems that will enable us to provide more consistent and accurate figures in the future. I am able however to provide you with information collected locally in response to your first three questions only although I should make it clear that we may not be able to tell the whole picture from this information or assess how it compares to other BDCs nationally.

On average, Coatbridge BDC receives 6797 calls per week to the 0845 608 8645 number. The average number of calls answered each week by the DWP staff is 6099 (89.7% of calls). On average 698 calls to this number are unanswered each week.

I hope this information is helpful.

If you are not satisfied with my handling of your request please tell me why. I will then arrange for an internal review of your request and my actions. The review will be conducted by another officer of a more senior grade to myself who took no part in my original decision. The reviewing officer will advise you of his decision in writing.

If you are still not satisfied after we have looked at your request again, you can then ask the Information Commissioner to look into the way your request has been handled. The Commissioner is an independent officer who is appointed by Her Majesty the Queen and reports directly to Parliament. The Commissioner can see all the papers about your request and decide whether my decision is fair and meets the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

The Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Fax: 01625 524 510

e-mail: http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Yours sincerely