MPs ignore constituents' email

One in six members of parliament have failed to respond to emails from their constituents.

A survey of 625 of the 646 MPs who make up the House of Commons, found that when a 'constituent' had emailed the member with a question about recycling of old technology, 98 (15 per cent) of those contacted ignored the message altogether.

A further 73 responded only after a second message was sent, while several more required up to two months to reply.

Those who failed entirely to reply to the constituent included former Tory leader William Hague, former education secretary Ruth Kelly and flamboyant Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik.

Each MP was contacted by a 'constituent', who was in reality a reporter from magazine Micro Mart, which carried out the survey. The email asked for help with technology recycling, and also asked about government plans in that area.

The survey also named the country's most 'tech-savvy' MP, Jo Swinson, who is also parliament's youngest member. She gave comprehensive replies, the magazine said, with regular updates and scans of relevant documents.

A representative of Lembit Opik told Computeractive that he encouraged email from constituents: "As a policy we do keep a close watch on the inbox, but this one must have slipped through the net. We try our best to keep on top of email. "

Jo Swinson said: "Email is quicker, greener and often more convenient than sending letters by post. Parliament can sometimes be slow to catch up with the modern world and perhaps this is one such case in point."

Swinson, born in 1980, is the Liberal Democrat MP for East Dumbartonshire. Many MPs answered the question fully, it said, and offered genuine help and guidance.