Ms Cora O'Brien:

We have surveyed our members about the matter.

It depends what one means by response and response time and that is part of the problem. A response could be a letter saying, "We hear what you say, give us more information", or it could be someone answering the phone but not giving one the information that one needs. In the UK, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, HMRC, has looked at this issue. In its annual report, it said that it wanted to be a leading customer service provider and that it was not good enough to just measure how long it takes people to answer the phone or how long it takes to send a letter; what matters is measuring how long it takes the customer to get the answer that he or she needs. We need less quantitative statistics because they often do not give one the full picture and more real and valuable information about whether taxpayers are getting the service to which they are entitled.