THE computer age means a fantastic amount of information and statistics can be accessed almost instantly.

As a result customer queries to business and industry by telephone are dealt with faster and far more effectively than they were a few years ago.

Government departments, which are still well stocked with legions of comparatively well paid civil servants, should also be a model of efficiency.

But according to Hyndburn MP Greg Pope at least one arm of government - the Department of Health - is guilty of "gross inefficiency" by taking an average of 44.8 days to reply to each letter from an MP.

Mr Pope says he does not normally publicly criticise his own government but finds it a scandal that, for example, 300 MPs have been waiting for replies about constituents problems for more than nine months and 74 for a year.

It is indeed an outrage and completely contrary to the sort of customer service criteria that government campaigns, paid for with public money, exhort private business and industry to follow.

Why isn't the government acting immediately to change a civil service culture that is nothing short of an insult to our elected representatives.

And if the department takes this long with MPs' queries, how long does it take to deal with ordinary members of the public?