Mr. John Hennessy:

We are getting into interpretations of "lost". People send in information. The director general mentioned the 8 million pieces of correspondence that come in annually, so it is a significant operation. Understandably, people send in documentation today and ring up tomorrow to see if has arrived and, upon being told it has not, interpret that as meaning that the correspondence has been lost. It is not actually lost very often; usually, it is in the process of being opened or registered, the data is being entered, or the case is on the way to the deciding officer. Sometimes that can taken several days, or even a week or more.