Vol. 510 No. 3
408 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason complaints to the Ombudsman against his Department rose by 6 per cent in 1998; and the action being taken to avoid the need for such complaints in future. [22658/99]
The number of queries stated in the Ombudsman's report for 1997-98 included queries which were not referred to my Department for attention. The actual number of queries my Department received for both years were 93. Customer service is a priority in my Department and there has been a significant reduction in the number of Ombudsman's queries to my Department in 1999.
